College Daze
by Sara Miyamoto
Summary: Shigeru, pursuing his dream of becoming a researcher, is going to college. However, before classes even start, he meets a fellow student he never thought he'd see, and makes new friends that will help to change his life forever. Yaoi and Yuri warnings.
1. Chapter I

College Daze  
Chapter I  
By: Sara Miyamoto

Disclaimer: This is a non-profit work of fiction. Pokémon is ©1995-2007 Nintendo/Creatures Inc./GAME FREAK Inc.

Warnings: Yaoi, yuri, language, adult situations, and other goodies. Offended? Too bad! No one forced you to read.

Notes: It has been a long, long time since I've worked on College Daze. Finally having overcome my writer's block, I have decided that this is my first great project: The revival and eventual completion of this fic, which has sat unfinished for far too long.

First, I want to apologize to everyone who has been waiting so long for this story to continue. Trust me when I say you can't have been more disappointed with the lack of new material than I was myself. It was so frustrating to sit here, day after day, month after month, and to have the words in my head simply refuse to come out properly. I have lost track of the number of times I sat down to start working on a new chapter, only to admit defeat after twelve hours of deleting everything I managed to get out because none of it felt right. You have waited so long, and so patiently, and I thank those of you who decide to come back and read this archaic tale, to give me another chance to bring this story to you. I hope you find it worth your time.

With that said, I should let everyone know that the story will be getting a face lift. Not the complete overhaul I had originally planned, for that would simply cause a larger wait before the new material is finished. But I am going through and fixing some glaring errors that sharp-eyed readers will have spotted in the original version (though were far too nice to me to point them out), as well as doing some spelling, grammatical, and formatting corrections that are in dire need of doing. I also hope to add a bit here and there to places I feel the story was lacking. So while these first nine chapters are largely what has been available for years, they have been updated, and those who wish should please go through and read this story in its entirety once again to see what has changed. I can only hope I can manage to make the second read a better experience than the first.

And with that, let us begin...

----------

--Shigeru--

Have you ever felt as if you were experiencing your life through a fog? It's a strange sensation, when you're acutely aware of everything as it happens, yet afterwards the details are sketchy. When each day feels as if it took a year to finish, but when you look back, you can't believe a whole week or month has gone by. The time just slips away from you.

My life's been like that for the past couple months. It's not surprising, really. A lot's been changing for me, so things have been kind of hectic. The ironic thing is that things are so hectic because I'm settling down for once.

I've heard such a drastic change in lifestyles can do that to you, but I've never really experienced it until now. Ever since I was ten years old, I've been constantly on the move. I can't even remember the last time I spent more than a couple days in the same city, let alone the same bed.

But that's the life of a Pokémon trainer. We don't make it by staying still, usually. We have to go out and experience the world, to search out gyms and Pokémon—to see things from as many different angles and perspectives as possible. It was a life I had loved every day for nearly seven years, and had dreamed of having years before that. And a part of me still loves it.

This, of course, brings up the question "If you love it so much, why are you quitting?" Well, I'm getting to that.

Like so many other kids, when I turned ten, I set out to become the world's greatest Pokémon Trainer ... I set out to be able to claim the coveted title of 'Master' for myself. And, I know I fell short of that along the way. But that's okay. I have enough trophies and ribbons, my face and my name are famous enough. I don't need any more. My ego in that regard is sated.

But my drive to be the best is not. Thing is, it's not just for myself anymore. Over the years, I've learned so much. And I realize the old saying is true; the more we know, the more we realize exactly how little we know. It's this fact that has driven so many people like my grandfather to devote their lives to studying the wondrous creatures that inhabit our world. And while we may never know everything about them ... well, we can try.

And the path I planned to walk was not one you can just stumble into. I was going to have to work, and work hard, if I ever wanted to so much as hold a candle to my grandfather when it came to conducting research into Pokémon. And that's what eventually led to me being here. 'Here' being Minamo University, in the Houen Region. Yeah, you heard me, people. Ookido Shigeru was going to college.

-----

I feel it's important to explain a bit about my past before things progress. Understanding who I am, where I came from, will be important later. It will help you understand why things turned out the way they have for me, and why I've done the things I've done in life.

Some of you, perhaps, thanks to one interview or article or another, know some of the basics. But I've never divulged much to reporters, just enough to satisfy their curiosities, and get them to leave me alone. I never was much of a social person, and my past is a subject I don't like talking about much. But this story is too important to me to keep the details hidden now. So excuse me if I ramble, because I'm really not used to this sort of thing.

I was born and raised in Masara Town, a quiet little town in southern Kanto. My family consists of my grandfather, the famous Ookido Yukinari-hakase, and my sister, Ookido Nanami. My parents died in a car accident when I was really young, and unfortunately I don't remember them very well. Everything I do know about them comes second-hand from my grandfather and sister.

I've always led a rather privileged lifestyle. My grandfather, the world-renowned researcher that he was, was a wealthy man. Between research grants and the income brought in from various companies that used his research in their work, it sometimes seemed he couldn't run out of money if he tried. I was never denied anything if cost was the only concern. Perhaps that's why, when I was younger, I was so arrogant. I was used to getting my way with almost anything. Unfortunately, my arrogance and natural social anxiety led to me not having many friends. Actually, I only really had one.

Satoshi. In the earliest memories I have of life, he and I were already the best of friends. But just a few weeks before we started our training, we had a bit of a ... falling out, I guess you could say. I'm pretty sure that's why, as we went along our paths as trainers, we were so incredibly hard on each other. Memories of a friendship gone sour burned within us and supplied us with fuel for a rivalry that at times seemed to border on the lines of hatred. I think, in a way, it was for the best, though. I'm not sure either of us would have worked as hard as we did, accomplished so much, if not the harsh words of the other driving us on.

However, my truest friend being my fiercest rival had its downsides. Not only did the harsh words he said to me hurt at times, however easily I shrugged them off, but what I said to him was always empty and meaningless, and it easily hurt me more to say them than it did him to hear them. And Satoshi, being the kind of hyper, in-the-moment person he was ... I'm not sure he ever realized any of that. It didn't help I was always perfect in my performance. The few times my facade fell away before I had turned my back to him, he was already so fuming mad that he didn't notice.

Luckily, we didn't meet very often. I had planned it that way, as I didn't really think I could stand seeing any more of him than I absolutely had to. We couldn't help a few chance meetings though, especially at big competitions such as the Pokémon League Championship tournaments. For the first couple years, I had my cheer leading squad to use as a shield, and I was able to keep up my holier-than-thou act around him ... but after a while, I had left them behind, along with a lot of the old arrogance and fear I had felt. I had found that the idol-like image I had sculpted myself in was making me feel worse and worse the longer I hid inside of it.

I didn't rub my superiority into Satoshi's face as I used to. But after our battle at my grandpa's ranch (which, I might add, was started by Satoshi) it was obvious I was the stronger of us. And at that point, I think he was so upset and lost in bad memories, he couldn't tell how sincere I was as I tried to tell him how good of a job he had done. To him, it must have seemed like three years of work wasted.

The funny thing is, two years later in the Jouto Pokémon League he finally beat me. But to be perfectly honest ... my heart wasn't in that battle. Maybe if it had been, I would have won. But we had spent so much time together in the days that led up to the tournament, that I couldn't concentrate on the fact that he was my opponent, and not the friend I had lost years earlier.

What really surprised me (though in hindsight it shouldn't have) is that I wasn't upset. In a way, I was happy it had happened, because it meant we could finally, officially, put our rivalry to rest. And we did. After that point, we were finally able to call ourselves friends again. And it's about then that I started to consider settling down. I didn't have my rivalry with Satoshi to spur me on any longer, and it sounded like a good idea. As far as training was concerned, I had nothing left to accomplish for myself. But the itch to travel was still too strong, and so, as he had followed me to Jouto, I followed Satoshi to Houen.

That is where things started to really slow down. My time in Houen was, while fruitful, largely uneventful. I rarely ran into Satoshi and his friends, and even after collecting eleven badges—three more than enough to enter the League there—I decided not to enter, and instead cheered Satoshi on from the stands. I doubt he ever even realized I was there.

I spent a few months after that just traveling and letting myself unwind, before I called my grandfather and asked him to help me get things set up. After another week or so, I got a call telling me where to go. Nanami was with him, as she wanted to talk to me as well.

Even over the video phone, I could tell how proud they were of me. It was nice to see that on their faces. It almost made it feel like my parents were there, and feeling just as proud.

-----

And so, here I am. After traveling a long, twisting path, I eventually made it to Minamo University. Minamo is a beautiful city that I had only barely experienced when I had passed through before. It's a port city with a beautiful beach, and offers a wide variety of things to do, and places to go.

One of those places happened to be the continent's largest shopping complex, a behemoth of buildings that dominated the center of the city. I was lucky to find that one store or another in the mall sold just about anything anyone could ever hope to find, from furniture to a quick bite to eat. I would say it made shopping much easier, but to be honest, I don't have much to compare it to. My shopping experiences were mostly limited to a few articles of clothing over the years, food, and training supplies. I will say, however, that having so much variety so readily available in a centralized location seemed to ease the process for me.

When I first arrived in the city, I had little to work with. I had an apartment waiting for me, which I didn't find out until I arrived was unfurnished. My first few days in Minamo were spent in a hotel as I picked out furniture for my new home (man, it's weird applying that phrase to any place other than grandpa's estate) and waited for it to be moved in. Once I had a bed and the basics, I officially took up residence in the space I'd likely spend the next four years in. It took me another several days before the place stopped looking so barren. Dressers, bookshelves, entertainment center, couches, chairs, rugs... I had never realized how much work could go into filling a two-bedroom apartment. I felt worn by the time I was finally done with furniture, picking it out, waiting for it to arrive, directing the movers where to set it up. But more tiring was the idea that I wasn't done yet. I still had so much left to do before classes started.

-----

It was just a little more than a week before the first classes of the year were to begin. I had my schedule, and had been given an extensive tour of the campus a couple weeks earlier. All in all, I was just starting to feel kind of comfortable with the area, though the sensation of having stayed in the same place for so long was still taking a bit of getting used to, and I was already fatigued from the work of setting up my apartment.

I was at the mall, just browsing the different stores for this and that—after all, my apartment had furniture at this point, but little else, and now that I had a place to keep them, it turns out I love collecting little pewter figurines of Pokémon. I also have a couple bookcases to put to good use. Half of one is filled with two sets of encyclopedias donated to my 'cause' by my grandfather, but the rest of the space needs to be filled with something.

And it was as I was walking out of the Barnes & Noble bookstore that I saw him. It took me a second to make sure, as it was from behind, and he had recently grown out of his habit of wearing a hat everywhere, but there was no mistaking that head of unruly black hair, or the Pikachu riding comfortably on his shoulder. It had been a while since we had officially seen each other, about a month before the last Pokémon League Championship he had been in, so I thought it'd be nice to spend a bit of time together, as he wasn't likely to be in town for long, and he'd likely never pass through this town again. This would probably be my last chance to talk with him for years.

"Satoshi!" I called as I did my best to make my way towards him. The mall wasn't overly crowded that day, but four rather hefty bags full of various items slowed my progress considerably.

I don't think he heard me, but I saw Pikachu's ears twitch in response to hearing her master's name, and she turned to look my way. A moment after, Satoshi turned to follow, and he smiled as he saw me heading his way, turning to meet me. "Shigeru! It's been a while, hasn't it?"

"Yeah, it has," I said with a bit of a smile. "What's say we catch up on the past couple months over a milkshake? My treat."

I'm still not sure exactly how, but at that point, I swear to the powers that be that Satoshi and his Pikachu shared the exact same grin. And as we made our way towards the food court, I had already resigned myself to the fact I'd be buying three milkshakes, not two. I didn't really mind, though. I had never once in over six years seen Pikachu inside its PokéBall. The two shared a bond of friendship every bit as strong as Satoshi's multitude of traveling companions had ever managed to make with him.

After getting our drinks, we picked out a free table and sat down, and Pikachu began enthusiastically nursing an apple-flavored milkshake ... a flavor that I'm still kind of shocked the store even carried. Satoshi had gotten chocolate, and was going just a tad slower than his Pokémon. I had chosen vanilla, but I didn't start on mine until I had asked the question.

"So what's been going on in your life?"

"Well, ever since the last tournament, Haruka and I have been taking it pretty easy. Checking up on old friends and family. She's been in Touka, visiting her family, but she should already been on her way here. Should be here tomorrow, in fact."

I took another sip of my drink before replying. "Why didn't you meet her there, or arrange to meet to somewhere else? Seems a lot of trouble to have her come all the way out here to Minamo."

He was in mid gulp, and hurried it down. "Oh, she has to come here. We're both starting classes at Minamo University next week. So while she was visiting her family, I was finalizing things here."

I really wish I hadn't been mid-swallow when he said that. Because that's about the point where I almost choked on my milkshake.

----------

End Chapter I.


	2. Chapter II

College Daze  
Chapter II  
By: Sara Miyamoto

----------

--Shigeru--

For those of you who have never experienced it first hand, choking on something in a public place is not an enjoyable experience—in fact, it's quite embarrassing. I was in the middle of the food court of the mall, coughing up a storm, with everyone within hearing distance staring at me. Thankfully, because of the noisy nature of malls, hearing distance equaled only a few tables in any given direction.

Satoshi was on his feet almost immediately and he had come over to me, patting me on the back with an expression of deep concern on his face. "Shigeru! Are you okay?" Even the little yellow Pikachu had looked up from its treat, ears twitching empathetically as it cooed a soft "Pika..?"

I tried to let him know I was all right, but it was difficult while coughing so hard. It was several seconds before I had regained enough control of myself to manage to say "I'm fine, fine..." Of course, Satoshi didn't believe me, and he refused to sit back down until I had actually stopped coughing long enough to give him a weak smile.

"Are you sure you're okay, Shigeru?" he asked, that concerned tone still in his voice, as he settled back into his chair.

"Yeah, I'm okay. Just got some down the wrong tube," I said, still trying to clear my throat to get my voice back to normal. At least all the people around us had gone back to their own little worlds. You simply have to admire human nature at times—now that I was no longer in mortal danger, they were completely disinterested. "So uh," I started, trying to move things back to an actual conversation, my brain buzzing with what Satoshi had told me, "you and Haruka are going to be attending the university? If you don't mind me asking ... why? I figured you'd still be traveling, training..."

I was blunter than I had meant but to be, but I honestly couldn't help myself. Satoshi had, with a single sentence, completely blown my mind. You see, there are certain things about the world that simply aren't supposed to change. The daytime sky is blue, fresh grass is green, and Satoshi trains Pokémon. This seriously didn't add up. But if he found my question rude, he didn't show it. In fact, he seemed rather eager to discuss the subject.

"Well, Haruka has been planning to come here for a long time—she wanted to become a journalist, so she'd be able to travel all over the world," Satoshi said, now back to his usual chipper self since I was all right. He had even gone back to sipping his milkshake, and Pikachu was buried to the ears in hers. "As for me ... well ... I think the courses I take here can really help. The more I learn about Pokémon, the better off I'll be, right? Plus..." he added softly, the happy expression giving way to something a bit more thoughtful, another surprise for me on this day—Satoshi had always been the spontaneous one. To see that look on his face, a look that spoke of deep thought and consideration, was a surprise. "I'm getting kind of tired. I've been on the move for years now. I think taking a break will do me some good."

I had taken to sipping my milkshake again, mainly to have an excuse not to say anything for a few seconds. What could I say to this revelation? When I made the decision to spend four years here in Minamo, to completely change the direction my life was moving, I had expected it to be a kind of new beginning, leaving most of my old life behind. But now, a gigantic chunk of that life had just told me he'd be there right alongside me. Not even just living in the same city, but actually going to the same school. Possibly even attending some of the same classes. Not to mention how close it was possible he'd be living to me.

"So where are you going to be staying?" I asked, hoping for the best yet dreading the worst. Luckily, my momentary fears were groundless.

"Oh, I'm going to be living in the dorms," he said. "Ookido-hakase said he'd help me get an apartment, but he's already helping my mom cover the tuition, and I didn't want to bother him any more than that. I feel guilty enough as it is." The look on his face as he spoke the words left no doubt in my mind that he did. Satoshi wasn't someone who liked such big favors granted to him. It had always made him feel like he was incapable of caring for himself.

"So grandpa knows you're going?" I asked, more than a little confused as what he said completely sunk in. If my grandfather was helping to pay Satoshi's tuition, then he knew Satoshi was going to the same school as I was. So why didn't he mention it to me?

"Yeah! When I told him how I was feeling, he's the one who suggested it to me, and he helped me to get everything set up. Ookido-hakase has always been so helpful ... you're so lucky to have him as a grandpa," Satoshi said, a bit of a wistful look to his face. Life really is amazing. Here we were, talking like we'd been best friends forever, and for years, we'd been at each other's throats. "But," he added, the focus coming back to his eyes as he looked at me. "What about you? I remember you said you were going to become a researcher, but you were still training last time I saw you. What's going on with you?"

"Well," I said, half wondering if maybe I should lie and hope we had different enough schedules that we wouldn't see each other at school. But it was stupid, and I knew the chances of going so long without being noticed on the same campus were remote, if not nonexistent. Besides, whatever bad blood may have existed before, Satoshi was my friend again. I'd just have to trust that it stayed that way.

"I'm starting classes at the university, too. I've been talking about it with grandpa for months, now." I couldn't help but feel a warm feeling inside at the face Satoshi made. It was an adorable blend of delight and surprise. "I can't become a researcher if I don't know how to do the work, right?"

Satoshi's look quickly became one of total, all-consuming enthusiasm. "This is great!" he said, "With both of us going, we'll already have a couple friends at the school, so it won't be so lonely. And maybe we'll have some of the same classes and can help each other out!"

It was a bit surprising to see how much he was enjoying the thought of us attending the same school for several years. I knew that we had finally forgiven each other for all we'd put each other through, but now he was acting like it had simply all never happened. It was ... refreshing, in a way. That was one thing, at least, I no longer had to worry about.

"Yeah," I said, finally allowing myself to smile at the idea. "This'll be nice. It would have been really lonely going to a school where I don't know anyone." I looked around the mall, absentmindedly sipping at my milkshake. It was a lot to take in. And I know it had to be my imagination, but the world, at the moment, seemed a few shades brighter than normal. "So what are you studying?" I asked, looking back at him.

"I'm gonna be majoring in Pokémon Psychology, and then I'm taking Pokémon Biology and Geography courses, too." He said it so naturally, that I was almost positive I had heard him wrong. I could understand him wanting to take the courses on Pokémon, even though those two were possibly the most difficult subjects that were available at the university on them. But the geography course had totally sent me for a loop. Satoshi was proving to have become a very surprising person. "Why those classes?"

"Well, the Psychology course is because I want to be able to understand the way Pokémon think more. And the biology course is so I can understand their bodies and development, so it'll be easier to train them. And the geography course..." he gave a sheepish little grin, and shrugged his shoulders gently. "The more I understand about the world, the easier it'll be to find Pokémon who like specific conditions ... and the more I'll understand how to take advantage of different types of terrain during a battle."

I was quite impressed with his reasoning, and it seemed as if Satoshi was just as impressed with himself. He looked so cute sitting there, looking so happy. "You've really thought it all out, haven't you?" I said.

He nodded. The way his hair moved distracted me for a few moments. I was so used to seeing him wear a hat, that it was pretty odd to see him without one. "Yeah. I have. With no small amount of help from Ookido- hakase." He gave a little laugh, and I couldn't help one of my own. "I really want my time here to mean something. I know I've never been the most responsible of people, but I really think I need this."

For a moment, he seemed ... lost. Like he was anywhere but where he was sitting, in the food court of the mall, and he had no idea how to get back. It was all I could do not to go around the table to him, to make sure he was all right. Luckily, Pikachu beat me to the punch. She let out a long, satisfied "Piiikaaa..." as her cup fell to the table, completely empty. It had apparently even been licked clean. The sound broke Satoshi out of his little trance, and he looked over at his Pokémon with his usual smile. "All done?"

The little yellow mouse nodded then jumped onto Satoshi's backpack, which he had set right next to his seat, where she promptly curled up and dozed off. Satoshi looked back to me, his usually happy face still clouded somewhat from whatever had drawn his mind away earlier. "What about you, Shigeru? What are you studying?"

"Well, I'm taking the Pokémon Biology and Psychology courses, too. Along with electronics engineering and computer programming," I told him. He gave a low whistle of appreciation.

"I guess you're going to be working even harder than I am, with that many classes. Sure you can handle it all?" He grinned at me as he spoke. Just teasing. Of course, the fact he was teasing didn't mean I couldn't rise to his bait. I was still me, after all.

"Of course I can handle it!" I puffed out my chest proudly, striking a rather silly pose from some old action movie. "I am Ookido Shigeru, after all. If I can't handle it, no one can!" It took about two seconds after that for us both to crack, and we shared a real laugh for the first time in a very long time. It felt good. In fact, right then, laughing with Satoshi, in a very normal setting such a mall, I felt better than I had in years.

It was about then that it started to seem like I was finally out of the daze that had taken hold of me from settling down and getting ready for college. If only I had known some of what was to come in the following months. I may have welcomed staying in that daze for a while longer.

-----

It turned out that Satoshi had just gotten into town, and hadn't even seen the campus yet. So, after I gave him directions, and he convinced me to go with him to the bus station the following day to meet Haruka, we parted ways.

I have to admit to myself, and I guess to you as well, that I was reluctant to let him walk away. We both had things to do, and despite the number of bags I was carrying, there were still a few stores I needed to visit. But it was so nice talking to him that I didn't quite want it to end yet. Still, the thought that we'd have a few years together was enough to let me let him go on his way and me on mine.

I think by the time I was done, I had at least ten bags, all bulging, and was very thankful I had driven to the mall. I don't think it would have been humanly possible to carry everything I had bought home. New clothes (I had never had very many, always traveling), a few small paintings to decorate the walls, little knickknacks for shelves and table tops, and various other things not really worth getting into.

After the two trips it took to get my things up to my apartment, I spent the rest of the afternoon putting things away, and arranging them so that they didn't look too awful. I may never be a professional, but at least I could make my own apartment pleasing to myself. And among those new things were my textbooks, which each seemed at least as large as a phone book (and some put phone books to shame).

Since I had nothing else to do with my evening, I flipped the TV on to a channel where they were showing a tournament in a city I had never heard of, and opened up my book on Pokémon psychology. A lot of what the book talked about seemed very familiar, traits I had witnessed during my training. Things such as while different species of Pokémon usually had several very similar personality traits, that each and every monster was unique to itself, just as humans were.

Of course, some of what the book said was wholly new to me. And it all made since, as things I had never understood about the way some of my Pokémon acted in certain situations was made clearer. I was starting to think I was really going to like taking these classes. Which, considering I'd be taking them for so long, was a good thing.

I'm not exactly sure when I fell asleep. I was reading, with the battles going on in the background of the TV I wasn't really paying attention to, and the next thing I knew, I was in a dream. Well, at the time, I wasn't so sure it was a dream. It was one of those dreams that, while inside of it, it feels completely real.

Everything about the dream seemed so normal. It looked like the normal world, with normal people and things. I was back home in Masara. Everything looked exactly like I remembered it the last time I was there. It's a small, hilly town, the majority of which is taken up by the ranch my grandfather owns and uses to study Pokémon.

Everything just looked a touch bigger than it should have. And then I saw why. I saw Satoshi, dressed in blue jeans and a black shirt, his dark hair messy as ever, running towards me. And he looked like he did more the day we left home than he did now. He was ten, maybe nine years old. And the fact he was just an inch or two shorter than me told me that in this particular dream, I was as well.

Let me tell you something right now. Anyone who says you have control over your dreams is lying to your face. Dreams simply are what they are, and you just have to accept it. I had absolutely no control over what was happening. Because see, I've had this particular dream off and on for six years now. And I would have done anything to change it.

Satoshi and I were meeting at a lake. It was nothing new, we came to this lake all the time to play when we were younger. The land around it was pretty flat, and the water was usually warm enough to swim in, so long as it wasn't winter. Right then, it was late spring, almost summer, and the weather was perfect. We both laid down on the grass, looking up at the sky, which had just enough fluffy white clouds to keep most of the sun out of our eyes.

"Shigeru, aren't you excited? We're both becoming Pokémon trainers soon!" Even laying there in the shade, Satoshi practically radiated energy. He had always been hyper, ever since the day we met, when we were little more than toddlers. He'd been able to think of little else other than becoming a trainer for weeks.

"Of course I'm excited, Satoshi. It'll be the most important day of our lives ... the day we set out to make our dreams come true." I had always been more subdued than Satoshi was. But the truth was, inside, at that moment, I felt just as excited as he did. In about a month, our dreams of traveling, capturing, training, battling, they were all about to become true! I don't see how anyone could could not be excited about that.

"It's gonna be so cool to be away from home! No chores! I can do what I want, when I want!" He was laughing at the sheer joy of the idea. And the idea was certainly appealing, though I knew it to be misguided.

"Satoshi, if you act like that, you're never going to make it out there. You'll have to look after yourself and your Pokémon. Being a trainer is a serious responsibility." The words gave him a momentary pause, and I knew he was probably thinking about the inherent difficulties of trainer-hood for the first time. His eyes were wide, as they always were when he was thinking about something intensely. I doubt I paid as much attention when this event actually happened, but in my dream I could see deep into the chocolate pools of his eyes and could almost see his mind at work. His contemplative mood didn't last long, however. They never managed to.

"You're too serious, Shigeru! I know I'll have things I have to do, but it doesn't mean I won't be allowed to have fun!" He stuck his tongue out at me, and then stood up, taking off his shirt and jeans, under which were a pair of dark blue swimming trunks. "Now, I'm going for a swim." And with that, he made for the water and dove right in.

I sat up, watching him for a few minutes. I knew he wanted me to join him. But I couldn't help thinking, could he be right? Was I being too serious about things? No, I told myself, I was simply being realistic. Yes, our journey in life is supposed to be enjoyable, but being a trainer was not easy, and entailed a lot of responsibility. Why didn't Satoshi see that? It was so infuriating, and we had so little time left before it all began! I was worried about him, but the thought that we'd be traveling together reassured me. I would be there to make sure he didn't falter too badly.

I sighed to myself as I stood up, taking off my own clothing to leave me only in the swim trunks I wore beneath. We had spent so much time swimming, it had become habit in those days to replace our underwear with them. I waded out into the water, and swam out to where Satoshi was. As soon as I was in range, he splashed at me, and thus a gigantic water fight started, both of us getting drenched to the bone in lake water.

I'm not sure why we were trying so hard to soak each other. It was the longest we'd ever gone at it like that. It took so long, in fact, that by the time we were done, we both barely had the energy to swim back to shore and crawl up. I think we both knew it was one of the last chances we'd have to do something like that.

"You're a jerk, you know that?" Satoshi said between pants, and he couldn't help but laugh.

I was laughing too. "You're one to talk." I dragged myself onto my feet, tired, staggering further up to where I could sit down against the trunk of a tree, its leaves blocking out the sun, which had moved from behind the clouds. Satoshi joined me a few seconds later, and he rested his head against my shoulder. Something he had done a hundred times before, a gesture I was intimately familiar with. I felt content sitting there in the shade, the heat of Satoshi's body negating the chill of the light breeze on my wet skin.

"I'm going to miss Masara," he said quietly. "We've lived here so long, it's hard to imagine being somewhere else."

"You'll get used to it," I told him. "You'll get out there, and see how wonderful all these different places are, and totally forget about everything you left behind."

"Not everything."

I didn't have to ask what he meant. I knew, without a doubt, that it was our time together in these familiar places that he was talking about. For a moment, I was filled with the most wonderful feeling I had ever felt. Later in life, no tournament victory, no award presentation, had ever come close to making me feel as good as I had in that one blissful moment. If I had to describe it, I would say it was like there was a great cat inside of me, curled and purring in contented warmth. But the feeling lasted only a moment. In the next, I was suddenly scared, scared of that beast snoozing quietly within me.

"G ... get off me!" I yelled at him, and shoved the thoroughly surprised boy away as I climbed to my feet and stomped over to my clothes, slipping them on my still damp body. I glared at him as he lay on the ground where I had shoved him, looking up at me with the saddest expression I had ever seen anyone make. His face caused that beast inside of me to howl as if wounded.

"What's wrong, Shigeru..?" He didn't sound angry that I had shoved him. Only hurt. Which only made me feel worse for what I had done, but I was, at that point, too frightened to care. He'd made no move to get to his feet, only sat up so he could see me better.

"You are! You're too soft, Satoshi! You're never going to make it out there! And I won't have the likes of you slowing me down!"

Somehow, he seemed even more hurt than before. But I didn't care. I was scared, and I walked right by him. The beast let out a pathetic whimper with each and every step, but I didn't care. I headed straight for home, where I could could hide myself away and cry.

The dream ended long before I ever reached home. I was awake, the tears already streaming down my face. And the beast, long ago beaten into submission, reared its battered head inside of my chest and loosed a wail of sorrow that turned my silent tears into the first sobbing cry I had had let myself endure since that horrible day so long ago.

----------

End Chapter II.


	3. Chapter III

College Daze  
Chapter III  
By: Sara Miyamoto

----------

--Satoshi--

Hi there! My name's Satoshi. And today was an exceptionally nice day in Minamo City, for more reasons than just the good weather.

Not that the weather wasn't nice. Minamo is a coastal city, and the sky was nearly cloudless, the sun warm but not really hot, as it was nearing the beginning of Fall, and it wasn't quite noon. There were plenty of people about, and what seemed a rather unusual amount of people in their late teens and early twenties—students, waiting for classes to start next week at Minamo University.

And I happened to be one of those students.

I bet that caught everyone who knows me off guard, huh? Yeah, that's right, I'm going to college! And before you start going "Those poor teachers" (Kasumi), hear me out!

I'm a Pokémon trainer. And while maybe I'm not the greatest trainer in the world (yet), I'm definitely no pushover. I have nearly seven years of experience battling and training. But, admittedly, I've never sat down and seriously studied anything about Pokémon—everything I know is stuff I've learned through trial and error (more error than trial, as anyone who's traveled with me will tell you).

And I think that that courses in Pokémon Biology and Psychology I'm taking will really help me. The more I know about Pokémon, the better I'll be able to raise them, right? It's logical to want to know as much about the thing that I've dedicated my life to doing as possible, isn't it?

And it doesn't hurt that I'm just flat out tired. I've been traveling, almost nonstop, since I was ten years old. Taking a few years for myself, learning, settling down for a bit ... it just sounds too wonderful to pass up right now. Especially when you consider the company I'll be having.

Haruka, who I've been traveling with for over two years now, is taking classes at the university as well. But, she's taking courses in journalism. It seems she wants to be a reporter, which, considering her love of travel, seems like a career she'll really enjoy. She never had been too serious about battling, preferring instead to focus her attention on Pokémon contests. She was getting pretty good at them, too. Though, don't tell her this, I find them a little boring sometimes—while it's cool to watch the monsters show off their moves, I don't find it as interesting to see outside of a real battle.

And, as I found out only yesterday, I'd have someone else I knew attending school with me. And that someone was Ookido Shigeru. For those who have no idea who that is, he's the grandson of the world-famous Ookido Yukinari-hakase, the world's foremost expert on Pokémon. He's a very successful trainer, and one of my closest friends, which makes it awesome that he's gonna be going to school with me.

And it was his red convertible I was riding through Minamo City in, the top down, sending my already unruly hair into a windswept mess, causing my Pikachu's ears to flap haphazardly around.

Not too long before, he had knocked on the door of my dorm room. And while I had seen him just the day before, I had been so wrapped up in the moment I hadn't really taken the time to see him. When I opened the door, I took that chance. Shigeru had always been a really good-looking guy, but the last several years had molded him well. He always had been, and always would be, several inches taller than I was, and the constant travel had sculpted his muscles into the lean build of an athlete. His rusty brown hair was now largely held back in a ponytail that reached to the middle of his shoulders, though his bangs still had a habit of getting into his eyes. And his eyes ... they were just like I remembered them. They were the oddest eyes, sometimes blue, or green, or black, depending on the lighting or on his mood. Just then they were a deep cobalt blue.

I knew from experience that it was all too easy to get lost in those eyes, and so I forced myself not to spend long looking at them. My room was nothing special—I had just the barest few things, the furniture that had come with the room, the desk piled high with my new school supplies and books. It would be some time before I ever managed to collect some things of my own. I had been on the road so long, even my room back home was that of a ten-year-old, not that of a boy approaching his seventeenth birthday. So with nothing special to show off there, I had grabbed the few things that may come in handy, called to Pikachu, who jumped straight onto my shoulder without a moment's pause, and headed out with Shigeru to go to the bus station.

Shigeru had never been the most talkative person in the world, but he seemed oddly quiet during the drive. Even I (yes, I know other person call me rather dense, and I happen to agree with them, at least when it comes to some things) noticed it, but the expression on his face when he thought I wasn't looking... He looked so sad about something, and I didn't want to press the issue.

'Cause see, while we had grown closer over the last couple years, I don't think either of us had really forgotten the several years of harsh rivalry between us that had come before it. And I didn't want to do anything that would risk making him upset with me. I figured, if he wanted to talk to me about it, he'd do so in his own time.

Besides, he seemed to cheer up a bit once we were at the station. He hadn't seen Haruka for months, and greeted her with the same warm smile he'd given me the day before. Well, not totally the same. There was something a little different in it that I couldn't quite place. But it was easy to see why he cheered up. Haruka was a wonderful girl, with a happy, addictive personality and knockout looks that had only improved during our time together. She was a hair taller than I was (yes, I admit it, I'm short—happy Kasumi?), with light brown hair that was short in back, with bangs that hung down to frame her face. And, unlike so many other people with brown hair, her eyes didn't match, instead being a mid-tone blue. And her curves had been known to attract more than just the occasional eye.

"Satoshi!" she called as she climbed off the bus, rushing over to give me a hug, which I returned eagerly. She'd been with her family for the past two weeks, and after two years of daily contact with a person, you can grow to miss them in an incredibly short time. In mid-hug, Pikachu transferred over to her shoulder, and Haruka laughed, scratching the little mouse between its long ears as it nuzzled her cheek. "Hello to you too, Pikachu," she said, to which Pikachu replied a contented sound almost like the purr of a cat.

"And ... Shigeru? Hey! What are you doing here?" She had finally noticed the other boy, who had been hanging back so as not to interrupt Haruka and I's reunion. They greeted each other with warm hugs.

"Well, you can't expect Satoshi to walk your stuff all the way to the university, can you? And I'm cheaper than a taxi." Yes, he definitely seemed happier now. I knew him well enough to tell that little smirk was real. "Come on. Let's get your luggage and we can talk over lunch. It's after noon."

And so, splitting Haruka's luggage (which, I noticed, was a lot more than I had brought—but then, my home was on another continent) between us, we headed back to Shigeru's car and he took us out to a small, well-hidden Chinese restaurant he had discovered during his time here. He urged us to order whatever we liked and insisted on paying the bill.

If it had been anyone other than Shigeru I may have argued, but I didn't see the point—I knew for a fact he had the money to spare, and he wanted to be nice. Besides, his mood had brightened so much in the past several minutes that I didn't want to do anything to break his stride.

"So you're living in Minamo now? And going to the university? That is such a weird coincidence!" Haruka said, between mouthfuls of bourbon chicken and fried rice. "I mean, what are the chances of you two starting at the same school at the same time?"

"It is kind of weird, isn't it?" Shigeru said, taking a little break from his sweet-and-sour chicken, during which he gave me an odd look that I couldn't place. I quickly grew flustered under the power of his gaze and buried my face in my plate of stir-fry. Pikachu was as oblivious as always when there was food around. "But, who can complain? It'll be a lot nicer having friends on campus from the get-go than starting off knowing nobody, right?"

"Definitely!" Haruka exclaimed cheerily.

"Yeah ... it'll be nice," I said, a little softer but still sincerely.

I don't know why, but something just felt a little off. Maybe it was the fact that I didn't have to plan where I was going next, consulting Takeshi's extensive collection of maps or Masato's Navigator. After so long on the move, it was definitely a little unnerving to think about staying still for so long. Maybe that was what was wrong with Shigeru earlier. He must have been going through this, too!

Thoroughly convinced this was the problem, I managed to relax, reverting to my usual carefree self. After all, what was there to be nervous about? Sure, I was trading one lifestyle for a drastically different one, but I wasn't alone, I'd have friends with me. Friends I knew would help and encourage me all they could. And while I might not be traveling, that didn't mean I wouldn't be able to keep training my Pokémon in my free time.

The rest of lunch seemed to pass in a haze of warm, happy feelings. I wasn't even aware of the conversations we had, but it was all small talk, asking about each other's families, recounting our time apart in greater detail. It was nice. Probably the best time I'd had in months. By the time we were done eating, I think I was finally comfortable with the idea of staying in Minamo. I mean, with friends like Shigeru and Haruka, who wouldn't love it?

After, we headed back to the school. Haruka had to get her class and room assignments, and once she was ready, Shigeru and I helped her get her things to her dorm. We even got a chance to meet her roommate, a girl named Yukio. She seemed really nice, even offered to help Haruka unpack her things, which left Shigeru and I free to explore the grounds.

He showed me all the things he had been shown on his tour of the campus, from the classrooms to the sports fields. There was even a very nice field for Pokémon battles. I was heartened when I saw this, along with the area behind it, which offered a wide array of training facilities. Shigeru explained that it was because the school had a team of trainers that competed against teams from other schools.

"They told me that people can use the training equipment any time they want, so long as it isn't during the team practices," he mentioned as we walked past, knowing I'd likely want to make use of the facilities. They seemed to have everything from clay disk shooters to stacks of small logs; they even had one of the largest pools I had ever seen in my life. There was a building where I assumed gym equipment was kept. "Maybe you should try out for the team. From what I hear, the college competitions can be pretty intense. I've even seen a few of them on TV over the years."

"Maybe I will..." It definitely sounded fun, and being able to continue competing in professional battles sounded great. I decided right then that I was going to try out for the team when the time came. If I didn't make it, it'd be fine. I'd still be able to have a few battles here and there.

But as we moved away, I began to notice it again. Shigeru was growing quieter and quieter the longer we walked. He had the oddest look, a look that spoke of being far away. I probably should have said something. But then, I rarely managed to do the things I should. I let it go.

There wasn't much left to see, and once we were done, Shigeru led me back to my dorm. We said goodbye, and he left.

-----

I didn't have a roommate yet, so my dorm was a little lonely. Not having a TV, I settled for hooking up the computer that Ookido-hakase had given me as a present and browsing the Internet.

I've never really had a chance to web surf, but I must say, I can see how it can be very addictive. There's so much to do online! In the couple hours I was online, I found everything from chat rooms dedicated to Pokémon trainers to web comics about a rather wide variety of things, and some of them were very good.

It was while I was in the middle of going through the archives of one of those comics that I heard a knock on the door. Giving the clock in the corner of the screen a quick glance, I saw it was nearing seven o'clock. Wondering who could possibly be coming by this late, I answered it.

Without so much as a word, Haruka barged into the room, closely followed by Yukio, who looked rather amused at the expression I must have been making. It was kind of remarkable how much Yukio and I resembled each other. We couldn't have been an inch different height-wise, and we shared our black eyes and short black hair—though hers was infinitely better tamed, falling elegantly about her face. Seeing her brought back a fleeting image of the one time in my life I had cross-dressed (and it was only to get into a gym, I swear!). There were a few differences, though. Aside from the ones that develop during puberty. Her skin was very pale, while mine was lightly tanned from travel. Her face also sported softer contours than mine did, appearing rather heart-shaped.

"Come on, get your stuff! Yukio's taking me out to dinner and I thought we'd drag you along, too," Haruka said in her cheeriest voice, grinning broadly. I didn't even have time to say anything before she had stuffed my wallet into my pocket and began steering me out of the door. I tried to protest, but before I could even do that much, Yukio had coaxed Pikachu into her arms with surprising ease, and we were on our way.

When she said drag, I didn't think she meant literally. Not that I had much time to think. But there she was, guiding me through the halls by the shoulders, while her roommate carried my Pokémon behind us. "So where are we going?" I finally managed to ask as we were exiting the building.

"Haruka said she was in the mood for Italian, and I just happen to know of a rather nice place within walking distance," Yukio said, moving in front to lead the way. It wasn't until then that Haruka released me, and Yukio allowed Pikachu to jump back onto my shoulder.

The conversation on the way was rather bland, but maybe it was just because I wasn't paying much attention to it. I was preoccupied with my own thoughts, and with looking around as we walked, trying to take in part of the city. I'd have to learn my way around sooner or later. And life was bound to be very busy once term started in a few days.

It was a bit better once we were sitting down, and we talked about a lot while we waited for our food, getting to know Yukio. It turned out she had been raising Pokémon since she was little, but she hadn't led the kind of mobile lifestyle I had. She had actually grown up in Kanto, in Yamabuki City. She didn't delve too much into what she did there, but she said she had managed to collect Pokémon from all around without leaving home, which intrigued me. The three of us had fun telling each other about all of our different Pokémon.

The talk slowed a little with the arrival of the food, but we still managed to get in quite a bit between mouthfuls of various kinds of pasta. Yukio turned out to be a rather interesting person, and she was able to talk about a kind of life I was unfamiliar with. It was hard to keep up with music and movies and things like that when you were constantly on the move, spending most of your time traveling through forests and over mountains. And similarly, Haruka and I were able to tell her about what it was like to be traveling all the time, and she seemed really interested in it.

"So what courses are you taking?" I asked Yukio, once we reached a slow point in our conversation.

"Oh, I'm taking courses in electronic engineering, computer programming ... things like that. I've always been really into electronics," she said. "I've wanted to be able to work with them ever since I was little."

"That's cool, Shigeru's taking some of those classes, too."

"Where is he, anyway? I figured he'd still be with you, Satoshi," Haruka said, looking up from her plate with an expression of mild interest.

"No, he left hours ago, after he had shown me around the school. He had some stuff to take care of in town," I told her.

"Is that so?" she said, and I swear she and Yukio traded the oddest little look. Like they knew some cosmic secret that I was clueless about. And, quite suddenly, I found myself wanting to know what the secret was.

"Why did you think he'd stick around that long, anyway? He has a life, you know," I said, sounding a little more irritable than I meant to. But if either girl was offended, they didn't show it.

"Oh, no reason, really. It's just that when we've met him before, he would always hang around with us for a few days at a time. But you're right," she added, when I began to say something. "Living in the city now, I guess he does have more things to attend to, now."

I swear girls have so many different kinds of smiles that it was like trying to figure out an encrypted message. Yukio and Haruka both had the same identical little one. Even Pikachu seemed to have taken interest in the conversation, now that her bowl was empty, and I swear that if she were human her face would be another copy. It was monstrously frustrating. I don't remember where I heard this line, but it seemed to fit just now; extended time in the company of females can be mentally disorientating and physically confusing.

Luckily, the meal was over right about then. I don't know how much more of that special brand of abuse I could have tolerated that night. I mean, Haruka was near enough to a sister to me, and Yukio was turning out to be someone I knew I'd be able to be great friends with. But come on, being held in that dark like that? It's torture. True, it was torture that made me interested to find out why they were torturing me. But it was still torture.

Minamo turned out to be a rather different place by night. The college had obviously attracted a wide variety of places meant to attract a younger crowd. Nightclubs, karaoke bars, all-night arcades that were harder to notice during the day. And most of it seemed to be strategically placed to be within comfortable walking distance of the campus. But I'd come back to check things out some other time. Tonight I was tired, having had a rather busy day, and simply wanted to get some sleep.

But, when I had finally said goodbye to the girls and headed back to my room, I found I couldn't sleep. I tried to read a few more web comics, but I couldn't manage to focus on them enough to take anything in. And so I lay in my bed in the dark, Pikachu curled up asleep practically on top of my head, staring at the ceiling, thinking.

Because right then, I think I had more to think about then I ever had before.

----------

End Chapter III.


	4. Chapter IV

College Daze  
Chapter IV  
By: Sara Miyamoto

----------

--Shigeru--

Ever notice that when you wish time would slow down, it has the very annoying habit of speeding up instead? It's like some great practical joke of the cosmos. It never fails. If you're desperate for extra time, you end up having even less of it than you should.

That's how I felt right then, anyway. It was Sunday. The first classes of the term would be starting the next day. And I had absolutely no idea where the previous week had gone. The last day I actually remember participating in was the one where I had gone with Satoshi to pick up Haruka. I had shown him around the campus, then left to go buy groceries for my empty kitchen.

I had never shopped for food like a normal person. I'd never had a chance. When in cities, I would eat at restaurants, and while traveling, I always brought along light, high-energy foods that would keep for a long time, like jerky, nuts, and dried fruits. So grocery shopping had been a new experience, and I'm sure I must have forgotten a million things I'll need. But now a week had passed, and I hadn't had a need to go back to the store.

But then, that may be because I had hardly touched any of the food I had bought. I'd had nearly no appetite at all, and on the rare occasions I forced myself to eat, I settled for some of the leftover dried foods from my previous life. I think I ate about three times during the entire week (I'm honestly not sure), and hadn't tasted a bit of it. Not that I'd have tasted it even if it had been from the kitchen of the world's greatest chef. Something inside me had just kind of shut down.

But when I woke up today, I saw that it was nearly noon, and cursed myself for letting my internal clock get so messed up. That was more like the Ookido Shigeru I knew myself to be. I opted to shower before getting breakfast. Or lunch, whatever. And once inside, I turned the water on as hot as I could stand it.

That helped a lot. The water was so hot it turned my skin red as it splashed against me, but it felt good, and the stinging heat brought me more thoroughly around to myself. I'm not sure how long I stayed in there. I lost my sense of time again as I began to think things over; thinking having been a lost concept to me over the past several days.

Satoshi and Haruka were going to the same school I was. That should have thrilled me, but for some reason it didn't. I'd have friends with me at school! It should have made me happy that I wouldn't be alone there. But, quite suddenly I realized, I had wanted to be left alone there. What was the point of starting a new life if a gigantic chunk of the old one came along for the ride?

I mean, it's not like I hated Satoshi. I never have, despite how I may have acted towards him in the past, and I would never be able to. He was the best friend I had ever had. But back when we had always been at each other's throats, it had been safe. There was that animosity between us that acted as a shield. It may have kept us from being friends, but it kept us ... well, it kept me safe. It kept the wild beast inside of me at bay.

And now that it was gone, now that the wall I had worked so hard to build had been torn down, I could feel the beast rearing its head again, searching for a spot in its cage weak enough to break through. And every time I was near Satoshi, the bars grew weaker. Because now that I was able to be close to him, no matter how hard I tried to resist it, I found myself wanting to be closer than I should. The beast knew its prey was near and fought with me ferociously to claim it.

And it's not like I'm gay. At least, I don't think so, because I am attracted to girls. After all, I did let an entire cheer leading squad follow me around for over two years. I had been traveling for nearly seven, and I had had more than one fling during that time, and enjoyed them on a physical level even if they didn't touch me emotionally in the slightest. I might have been bisexual, but I doubted it, as I had never really felt anything for a guy other than Satoshi.

But Satoshi was ... Satoshi. He was special. I had always known he was. Even growing up, I felt differently about him than with any of the other kids we hung out with. But I never knew exactly what it was. And thinking of it now brought on feelings that made me abandon the hot water altogether, letting the now icy spray from the shower douse both the heat on and under my skin.

I took the freezing water for as long as I could before I turned it off and got out of the shower. The mirror was fogged up, and I was glad for it, because I wasn't so sure I wanted to see what I looked like right at that moment, so I toweled myself dry, went to my room and dressed as quickly as I could.

By the time I had finished with that, I was starving. I guess all that time with so little food was catching up with me, so I headed into the kitchen. I was right in assuming I had forgotten plenty of things. But I managed to make myself a couple of sandwiches, and I tried to let myself relax as I ate them, settling into the overly comfortable love seat and turning the TV on. I wasn't used to being able to watch TV on a regular basis and had no idea what might be on, so I began to flip idly through the hundreds of different channels as I ate.

But in all honestly, I wasn't even really seeing anything that flashed on the screen. I was wrapped up in my own thoughts again, which seemed, like my appetite, to be making up for lost time. And they all involved Satoshi in some way! In was agony in its most potent form, because it was an agony I accepted—even, at some level, welcomed.

I had known Satoshi since before we were in preschool. We had always been really close, even though we were so different. Satoshi was really energetic and friendly, while I was more reserved and took the time to think things out. We counterbalanced each other, him making me loosen up and have some fun, me keeping him from doing anything too stupid.

We had been inseparable. Right up until the day that had become the basis for my worst nightmare. I mean, I know I was horrible to Satoshi that day. But I was ten years old! I was terrified of the sudden feeling of ... something that had flooded through me then. I'm still not really sure what it was ... maybe a feeling of being complete. Thinking back now, that seemed to be the closest thing. But it had felt wonderful for a fleeting moment before the most intense fear I'd ever felt in my life set in.

And what does any ten-year-old do when afraid? They do anything they can to try and get away from the thing that frightens them. When you're ten, you just don't have the mental capacity to confront and try to conquer your fears.

So I had yelled at him. I yelled at him, and then ran away. And for the next two years, I was a jerk to him. A royal jerk. But I didn't have the heart for it after that. I loosened up, but he didn't really forgive me for another two years.

I missed him. I really, really did. It had started the moment I had walked away and wasn't able to see him over my shoulder anymore. And I still did miss him. Because while he was here, thing's weren't what they had been. I mean, so much time had passed. He'd gotten so close to so many other people that I'd never be able to get back my spot on his side.

Let alone a spot anywhere else. I mean ... Satoshi had traveled with Kasumi for four years, and she'd made no secret of how she felt about Satoshi. Unless Satoshi was ten times denser than even I knew him to be, he must have had something for her, or else he wouldn't have let her travel with him for so long, right? And now there was Haruka ... I didn't think there was anything going on between them, but for all I knew he could still be in contact with Kasumi. Even I knew she had gone back to Hanada in order to take care of her family's gym. And with video phones, and him being able to visit her on holidays...

I sighed to myself, thoroughly resigned to my fate. I'd lived with it this long, after all. What was another four years? Or a lifetime, for that matter?

-----

I'm not even aware of falling asleep. I just remember waking up. And the only reason that happened was because someone was banging rather loudly on my door. I did my best to ignore it for a few seconds, but whoever it was refused to give up. And then I heard the voice.

"Shigeru! Open up already!" Satoshi. The person I wanted to see more than anything. The last person on earth I wanted to see. But I couldn't just ignore him.

"Coming!" I called halfway through a yawn, pulling myself up and stretching. At least hearing me had gotten him to stop trying to beat the door down. I finally managed to get over to it and open the door. "What's up?"

Satoshi gave me the once-over, and I swear he nearly exploded with the effort involved in not giggling. I must have looked pretty rumpled—after all, I had fallen asleep with wet hair that I had never gotten around to brushing after my shower. Not to mention I was wearing an overly baggy T-shirt and shorts. Whereas Satoshi...

I nearly choked as I looked at him. Somehow, he had managed to tame his notoriously unruly hair. It now fell elegantly about his face in little tendrils that reminded me forcibly of Haruka's roommate Yukio. His usual blue jeans had been replaced with black ones, and he was wearing a black tank top instead of his usual T-shirt. But more shocking than those changes was the fact that he was wearing an accessory other than a cap. Instead of a belt, there was a silver chain looped around his waist. There were leather straps around his left wrist and the upper part of his right arm. And then there was the choker. A thin strap of black leather circled his neck, from which dangled a tiny little silver lightning bolt.

I couldn't speak. The beast inside was eying Satoshi with a hungry gaze, drooling in desire. Not that his answer helped my situation. "We're going out," he said simply, and stepped through the door as if he owned the place. Not that I'd have objected to it even if I had been able to speak. "And you don't have long to get ready, so you'd better hurry up!" He held out a large bag I was just noticing existed.

"Wha..?" I stammered numbly, looking down into the bag which contained a bunch of clothes, all of which were black.

"Term starts tomorrow, which means tonight's our last free night. So me, you, Haruka, and Yukio are going out. We invited Jamie, but he's so boring ... didn't want to come at all..." He said it like they'd been planning this for months. And if I hadn't known Satoshi had only been in town for a week, I likely would have believed it. He looked like a completely different person right now.

But something in what he said finally broke through my stupor. "Who's Jamie?" I asked him.

"My roommate. As you'd already know if you hadn't been locked up in here all week! He moved into the dorm a couple days ago, but he's really dull... no fun at all. Now get dressed! We only have all night!"

But I didn't move, because something else odd had caught my attention. "Where's Pikachu?" Satoshi was never without Pikachu.

"She's over at Haruka and Yukio's dorm. She took to Yukio really easily, it's surprising... she's gonna stay there with some of the other Pokémon 'cause the club wouldn't like having Pokémon loose inside." He was starting to sound exasperated with all my questions. And I guess, in a way, I had maybe almost ruined their plans by not answering the phone or door all week.

"Alright, alright, I'm going," I mumbled, though I gave a small smile, taking the bag with me into the bedroom.

I'm not sure how, but everything in the bag fit me perfectly, though in some cases, it was still difficult to put on. But that was due more to the nature of the items. The jeans were pretty much identical to Satoshi's, basic black denim, though on my case, the chain that replaced the belt was gold instead of silver. In fact, looking over the items, any and all bits of metal were gold. The shirt was ... different. The left sleeve went down to the wrist, while where was no right sleeve at all. Instead, a fingerless glove fit over my right hand. But that's not even mentioning the fact the front of the shirt was artfully 'vented' to give anyone who looked at me for more than a second a nice view of what lay underneath. I had a choker as well, like Satoshi's except with a little golden crescent moon instead of a lightning bolt.

"Hurry up!" Satoshi called from the other room. I finally thought to look at the clock. It was nearing eight.

"Almost done!" I called back, and headed into the bathroom. One look at my hair and I knew why Satoshi had fought so hard not to laugh. Wetting my brush in the sink, I went to work on my hair, fighting a merciless battle for a good five minutes before it finally looked the way it should, if just a little damp. I tied it back into a ponytail with a black hair band. Any other color would have clashed with the outfit.

When I finally walked back in the living room, I found Satoshi waiting impatiently. But when I stepped through the door, he jumped up from where he had been sitting on the back of the love seat and looked me up and down. Grinning, he gave an appreciative whistle that made me flush with embarrassment. I'd never worn anything like this before.

"About time! Come on, the girls are waiting! Keys..." He dropped my keys into my hand. "Wallet..." He dropped that, too. "Shoes..." they were dropped to the floor at my feet, which I slid into them. I'd had the pair so long they were well broken in. "And finally, the most important part—you!" And with that, he grabbed me by the arm and marched me out of the apartment. I will give him credit though, he thought to pause long enough outside the door for me to lock it before he practically threw me into the elevator.

"So where is it we're going?" I asked, stifling another yawn as I struggled to shrug off the after effects of my unintentional nap. I was waking up fast, though, due mostly to the way Satoshi was making me feel. Just like I'd never worn anything like this, I'd never seen Satoshi looking anything like he did now. If he was possible, he looked even better to me than he did before. It was almost painful to be this close to him.

"A nightclub in town. Haruka and Yukio saw it a couple of days ago and thought it'd be nice to go. So we're gonna pick them up on the way," he said simply. The casual tone he used in telling me exactly what I was going to do would have been infuriating had it been anyone else and had I not known I completely deserved it. I mean, if I had paid any attention at all to the last week, I would have readily agreed to it.

"So I assume we're taking my car?" The elevator doors opened up to the lobby, and Satoshi resumed his grip on me and marched me towards the front doors.

"Yep! You're the only one of us who has one!" The woman behind the front desk must have been in her mid-twenties. When we walked past, she did a double take, and I swear I could feel her eyes on us until we were out of view.

He finally let go again once we were at my car, and he jumped inside as soon as I turned off the alarm. He was so quick the top was already folding down by the time I got myself settled into the driver's seat. I shook my head softly, a bemused smile on my lips despite my mild annoyance, and started the car.

I was worried the open top would mess up all the work that whoever had done it had done on Satoshi's hair, but while the wind tugged at it, it always fell perfectly back into place. If anything, the wind was making it look better. Satoshi directed me to the parking lot in front of the girl's dorm, and when I pulled up, the girls came up to the car. Haruka looked a little miffed. Yukio looked amused. Both looked absolutely stunning.

They were wearing identical outfits. Both wore tube tops that left their arms and bellies exposed. Both wore gloves that went up to the elbows. Both wore short skirts that were offset by stockings that ended a few inches below the hems of the skirts. Both wore short heels. The girls, like us, both had chokers on, though theirs didn't have any charms. There was only one difference in their outfits. Like us, Yukio was wearing black, and it contrasted perfectly with her pale skin. Haruka, on the other hand, was wearing a shade of pink that, while it was a soft shade kind of like that of cherry blossoms, it made her stick out like a sore thumb among the rest of us.

"What took so long?" Haruka grumped as she slid into the backseat behind Satoshi.

"Yes, what did take so long?" Yukio asked as she got in behind me. "I've been having to listen to her whine about wasted time for half an hour now..." But, unlike Haruka, she didn't seem at all upset. In fact, her voice told that she was content as a coddled kitten.

"Sorry, I was asleep... I didn't know we were going anywhere... So tell me, where are we going?" Yukio began giving me directions, since Haruka was too busy pouting. It was easy enough to see what was making Yukio smile like that. A glance in the rear view mirror showed that Haruka was truly about as upset as I was at having been woken up (which was not upset at all), and the pouting only succeeded in making her look cute.

Besides, the pout went away the moment I pulled into a parking space a few minutes later. The others climbed out while I put the top up, the girls staying only long enough for me to get out of the car before they waved cheerily, told us to have a good time, and disappeared, giggling, inside the double doors of the club. Music rushed to fill the sidewalk in the few moments the doors had been open, and even closed the dull thrum of the bass could be felt.

"Shall we go in, then?" I asked, looking at Satoshi, who smiled. It was all the answer I needed, and side by side, we walked in.

Inside, the music was much louder than it had seemed out on the sidewalk. The bass-heavy, rhythmic tunes seemed to resonate inside my bones. Many multi-colored strobe lights flashed and whirled around in dizzying patterns. There were people everywhere. It seemed like what had to have been every teenager in the city was crammed into this one building. The only free space was along the walls, where tables were placed in a great circle around the central dance floor, and even then, almost every seat was taken.

Again, it struck me just how little I knew about 'normal' life. The crowd kind of unsettled me, as I was used to being on my own. I didn't even know how to dance, I suddenly realized. What the heck was I doing here?

I looked to my left and got the answer right away. I was here for Satoshi. I had ignored him for a week, and it was worth a night of discomfort if it would redeem me to him. And there was always at least a small chance I'd actually have fun, right?

Satoshi and I scanned the crowd as we moved through it. But I was taller than he was (and most of the people around us) so I was able to find the girls before he did. Haruka's pink outfit was impossible to miss, and I was right in assuming Yukio would still be with her. The two of them were dancing side by side. As I guided Satoshi towards them, since he still wasn't able to see them, being as short as he was, I was able to make see a few more details. Like the fact they were dancing together. They had both closed their eyes and begun to let the music guide their motions. It was interesting in a way, because I had never seen Haruka let herself loose like that. Also interesting was the fact that even with their eyes closed and being so close, they never bumped into each other, or any of the people around them—and, I noticed, there was quite a few people around them. Mostly boys, I noted, but there were also several pairs of hungry female eyes drawn to the sight of the two beautiful girls dancing.

I couldn't blame them, either. The site was definitely appealing. Once we had finally breached the circle surrounding the girls, and he could finally see, I noticed even Satoshi was affected by it. He uttered a soft "Wow," under his breath, leaning against my arm. It brought back a rush of memories both fearful and pleasant.

We must have just watched them for several minutes, because the song they had been dancing to finally came to an end. When it did, the girls stopped dancing, opening their eyes in a way that suggested maybe they were waking up from a long nap. They smiled at each other, rather sheepishly I thought, but then turned to us, completely ignoring the soft applause the crowd was giving them. Another song was starting.

"Your turn, guys," Yukio said.

I started, blinking a few times as I looked from one girl to the other. "Our turn for what?"

"To dance, of course! We gave the guys a show, only fair if you give the girls one, too," Haruka said, suddenly grinning in a rather evil way.

I looked at Satoshi. He seemed a little nervous, but eager. He gave me a questioning look when he saw me looking at him.

"But, I don't know how to dance," I tried lamely, knowing it wasn't likely to be enough to get me out of it. Turned out I was right.

"Neither do we. It didn't stop us, though, did it?" Yukio said, looking at Haruka, who shook her head.

"Nope, didn't even begin to give us problems."

"But..."

"No buts. Just close your eyes and listen to the music. It'll tell your body what to do, as long as the right person is standing in front of you. Music is magical like that," Yukio said. It sounded kind of corny to me, but she looked very serious. And if what she and Haruka had said was true, they had worked wonders while not knowing how to dance. Besides, I hardly wanted to have the crap kicked out of me by two girls in the middle of a public place.

"Come on. Dance with me, Shigeru."

I looked back down at him. Satoshi. Hyper, impulsive, hotheaded Satoshi.

But right then, he didn't look like any of those things. He looked like someone who wanted to dance. With me.

"Alright, Satoshi. Let's dance."

Haruka and Yukio grinned at each other as they stepped back to the edge of the little clearing they had made, and with a small sigh from me, Satoshi and I took their place. He smiled at me, and I tried to return it, though I'm not positive I did a very good job. He closed his eyes, and a moment later I did as well.

I felt a little silly standing there with my eyes closed. I tried to focus on the song, which was, second by second, melting away. But Yukio had been right. There was something a little magical to the music. As I listened to it, my head seemed to clear, and I suddenly found myself aware of the fact Satoshi was moving in front of me, even though I had my eyes closed. A moment later, I noticed I was moving, too. I don't even remember starting to dance, and afterwards, I was never able to recall exactly what it is I had done while my eyes were closed and the music made my body move of its own accord. Although I think a little of it may have sunk into my subconscious, because from then on I was able to dance without making an ass of myself.

I just remember that for a blissful three minutes or so, the world felt perfect. It was me and him, alone, in a world of flowing, beautiful rhythm. If this is what the girls had felt, it was no wonder they had looked so rapturous once they had stopped. It was one of the most wonderful feelings I could possibly imagine.

But the song could only last so long, and when it finished, all too soon for my liking, I found my body suddenly back under my own control. Opening my eyes, the world slowly came back into focus. I could hear the same kind of awed applause Yukio and Haruka had received, but I wasn't really listening to it. I was looking at Satoshi, who was smiling at me in the most sheepish of ways, looking flushed and a little embarrassed from all the attention. I could feel the same smile on my own lips.

I didn't trust myself to speak just then, and I found my muscles suddenly unresponsive. Luckily, the girls came to our rescue. Haruka came up behind Satoshi and began gently nudging him off the floor, towards an empty table. I felt gentle hands guiding me as well and knew Yukio had taken on the job of getting me safely off the floor.

Satoshi, Haruka, and I sat down, but Yukio remained standing. "What do you guys want to drink?" she asked.

I jumped back to my feet immediately, suddenly finding myself with an almost desperate need to be on my own for a few minutes. "I'll get the drinks," I told her.

She lifted an eyebrow. It was weird, I didn't know of anyone other than myself that could manage to lift just one, so I wasn't used to being on the receiving end of the gesture. "You sure?"

"Positive."

And so I took everyone's drink orders as Yukio sat down, still giving me an odd look. I had the distinct impression she knew exactly why I wanted to be the one who got the drinks, and had a fleeting notion that she might be psychic. And I swear as soon as I had that thought, she gave the oddest smile before turning back to the others.

I headed towards the bar, shaking my head slightly to try and clear it. Tonight was turning out so much better than I thought it was going to at the onset. I mean, I had gotten to dance with Satoshi. And he'd wanted to do it, and had seemed so happy at the end of the dance. I couldn't help but smile again as I remembered his face as it had been when we first opened our eyes.

I reached the bar and ordered the drinks. But while the tender was filling the cups, a voice I had never heard before spoke very softly practically right in my ear. "Hey there."

I started, not having noticed anyone getting that close to me, and looked at the person. It was a girl, and I don't remember what she looked like, but I remember that at the time I had thought she was very pretty. "Oh, hello..."

"You're a really good dancer, you know," she said. She was trying to sound casual, but doing poorly.

"Thanks," I said, looking back at the guy behind the counter, who had almost finished making the four drinks.

"Was the guy dancing with you your boyfriend?"

"No, just a friend."

"So how about letting me have the next dance?" The forced casualness had left her voice, and had been replaced with almost blatant eagerness and hope.

The drinks were placed in front of me, and I handed the bartender the money. "Sorry, I have to get back to my friends. They're thirsty." I loaded myself up with the drinks and started to head back.

"Maybe later then," I heard her say. I didn't bother to give an answer.

When I managed to work my way back to the table, I passed the drinks around before sitting down. Everyone muttered his or her thanks before slaking the thirst dancing had brought on. I had never really realized how much of a workout dancing could be. Especially the intense kind of dance we had done.

A few minutes passed in quiet company, the four of us focusing our attention on our drinks and the music. But after a bit Yukio jumped up and put her hand on my arm. "Come on Shigeru, let's have a dance."

I looked at Haruka and Satoshi for a bit of help, but they both smiled and shooed me away, so I let her steer me out onto the dance floor. Having no idea how to dance any other way, I closed my eyes, but she broke into my concentration. "Don't bother, it won't work."

"Why not?" I asked, opening my eyes to look at her. "It worked pretty good before, I think..."

"It won't work because I'm not Satoshi. I told you the magic would only work with the right person. Besides, even if it would work, I want you able to talk to me," she said. She started to dance. It may not have been with the total abandon and natural skill and grace she had displayed while she danced with Haruka, but watching her move still thrilled a primal part of me.

I did my best to dance as well, and I guess I didn't do too badly because no one laughed at me. "So what did you want to talk about?"

"You're a really great guy, Shigeru. Sometimes you try to hide that fact even from yourself, but I can see it in you."

"Look, if you're trying to hit on me..."

That actually made her laugh. "Oh, no, no, no. Don't worry about that. I have my eyes set on someone else," she said, shaking off the last of her laughter. I saw her eyes dart over to the table where Satoshi and Haruka were talking quiet over their drinks. "He loves you just as much as you love him, you know."

That startled me so much I stopped dancing and just stared at her. "So you are a psychic!" I didn't mean to sound so confusing. But again, what I said made her laugh.

"Maybe I am, and maybe I'm not. But if you don't keep dancing, it won't take a psychic to know something's up." She was right. I did my best to get back into the beat, but I was rattled. "I don't have to be a psychic to see how you treat him. You act like he's a precious treasure you can't touch because if you do you might break it."

I gave an involuntary shiver as I realized what she said was too true. "But you said he loves me, too. How could you possibly know that? He's never said anything..."

"That's because even he doesn't know it, yet. Not really," she said softly, a little sadly.

"If he doesn't know how could you?" I asked her again.

She shifted uncomfortably, and I noticed, even though she tried to work it into her dance. "I can see that much because I am psychic." She flinched then. "Please don't be upset!"

I immediately forced myself to calm down. Apparently, my sudden flush of anger had hurt her. "I'm sorry..."

"I know. And I don't blame you..." She sighed. "Just know that I don't try to pick these things up, okay? I'd never do that to anyone, especially to you and the others... I know I haven't known you very long, but you're the closest friends I've ever had." She looked so sad as she said it that I had no trouble believing her. "But lots of times the thoughts just spill out of people and it's like trying to walk through a room full of smoke. No matter how hard you try, you're gonna breathe some in. And with you, the love spills out like a fountain. The fear, too. And I can understand it ... believe me I can. If our roles were reversed you'd be feeling the same things from me. I'm scared of approaching the person I like because it may ruin the relationship we have, too."

Hearing her speak of these things flooded me with an instant sympathy, and I suddenly felt much closer to her, to share this kind of common footing. She must have picked up on the sudden rush of emotion because she smiled a little. "But what about Satoshi?" I asked.

"He's ... confused. Really confused. I mean, he has his best friend back, right? He told me all about your history together. But he feels something new now. Or more like something he had forgotten about. When you were both traveling, he never had time to think about it. And well ... you know him much better than I do. Things he doesn't have time for go right to the back of his head."

I couldn't help but smile at that. Another song was starting, but we continued to dance. Taking a quick peak at the table, I saw the two were still talking. "That's definitely Satoshi."

She smiled with me. "He needs time. I know you're willing to give him forever, but you've also been expecting to never had to deal with him liking you in return. He's working it out. Slowly, carefully, but he's doing it. It'll take him a while. But if you keep close to him, he's going to be able to do it."

I felt such an intense gratitude at what she told me, the feelings she picked up from me actually made her flush with embarrassment. But there was one more question I had for her that night.

"You said you were scared of telling the person you care for how you feel. Who is it?"

I expected her to blush again, but she actually just smiled. A soft, sad, wistful little smile. "Well, the magic of the music only works for you and Satoshi. So what does that tell you about me?"

Once again, my gaze was drawn to the table where Satoshi and Haruka sat. They were now watching us, maybe waiting for their turn to dance, as they didn't want to abandon our drinks.

"Good luck, Yukio."

"Thanks, Shigeru. I think I'm gonna need a lot more of it than you will."

----------

End Chapter IV.


	5. Chapter V

College Daze  
Chapter V  
By: Sara Miyamoto

----------

--Haruka--

"Alarm clocks should all be rounded up and shot," I muttered to myself, as the sound of one had cut in on a perfectly good sleep.

I didn't get the kind of response I was hoping for. I simply heard a giggle, followed by the sudden stop of the piercing tones. "Maybe so, but you can't deny they've got their uses."

I opened my eyes slowly, looking blearily around until I saw Yukio. From what I could tell, she seemed wide-awake, and she was smiling at me. I buried my face into my pillow. "Isn't it illegal to be that happy at six in the morning?" I asked her, my voice muffled.

"Last time I checked, no. Good thing, too, 'cause I'm always happy in the mornings. After all, mornings are the start of brand new days, which means they're the start of brand new good times, ne?"

"Definitely should be illegal," I muttered, which simply earned me a new bout of giggles from her as she headed into the bathroom.

With a deep sigh, I pulled myself up to a sitting position. It was Monday. Which meant that today was the start of the first term of the year. Looking at the window, I noticed very little light making its way through the curtains, which meant that the sun wasn't even fully up yet. It seemed a crime to be awake this early, but classes started in just an hour, and I had to be ready, so, groaning with the effort, I slipped out of bed.

I heard water running in the other room, and made a mental note to myself to try and beat her to the shower the next day. But, as I couldn't get in there myself yet, I busied myself with other things.

I loaded my bag (a neat little thing that looked as much like a briefcase as a backpack) with my laptop, books, and other things I'd need for the day. Then I started rummaging through my half of the closet. I wasn't feeling awake enough to be too terribly creative, and I didn't have a whole lot to choose from—the outfit I had worn out last night had been selected piece by piece in about ten different stores by Yukio, as had both boys'. And while my dad being a gym leader meant I was far from poor, I hadn't lived with him for over two years and had grown a little in that time, so most of my old stuff didn't fit anymore. I picked out a simple goldenrod yellow sun dress, figuring I'd wear it while Fall was still warm, as it wouldn't last for too much longer.

I heard the water stop, and a few moments later, Yukio walked out, wrapped in a towel. Desperate for the shower and wanting to give her privacy to dress, I snatched the standard undergarments from a dresser drawer and dashed into the bathroom.

Maybe I spent a little too long simply letting the water hit me, because it seemed like I had hardly started when I heard Yukio telling me to hurry up or I'd be late for class. I washed my hair as quickly as I could and then dried off. I had to wipe the mirror off before I could use it, but with that done, it didn't take long to do my hair, and I wasn't one for wearing makeup. I dressed in a rush, thankful I'd chosen something so simple, and went back into the main room.

Yukio was already ready, fully dressed, her book-bag slung over her shoulder. I snatched a pair of socks from my dresser, and with a few hops, I managed to slip them and my shoes on without sitting down. I took a glance at the clock, saw it was 6:49, and took up my bag, heading for the door. Yukio was just getting ready to lock up when I let out a small yelp. She raised an eyebrow at me, but I ignored her for the moment, dashing back into the room.

"Sorry," I told her, shutting the door as I came back out, then reaching to wrap something around my neck. Yukio couldn't see because she had her back to me.

"What was that all about?" she asked, locking the door.

"I forgot something." She turned to me, looking puzzled, but then gave a little smile. I had the choker she had gotten me the day before. It was the only thing of mine I had let her pay for, mainly because I hadn't even known she had bought it until we had gotten back to the dorm. It was also the only part of the outfit that hadn't been pink—it was identical to the black choker I had seen her wear every day since we had met. In fact, the only time I saw her without it was when she was bathing. She even slept in it.

"Come on," she said, starting down the hall. "We're definitely gonna be late for class if we don't hurry." Our classes were in different buildings, so once we were out of the dorms, we parted ways. "See you at lunch!" she told me over her shoulder as me moved apart.

"Alright! See you then! Good luck, Yukio!"

"You too, Haruka."

-----

On Mondays, I had three classes, two before and one after lunch. By the time I ran into Yukio in the school's courtyard, I had had an interesting time, but was developing a minor headache. I was hoping with all my heart that that particular side effect of school would improve over time. Satoshi and Shigeru were already with her, and I couldn't help but notice that Satoshi's hair was still unusually neat. Apparently, now that Yukio had tamed it for him (after a very long and difficult battle that had put both of them in tears—Satoshi tears of pain, Yukio tears of frustration) he wanted to keep it looking nice.

"Sorry I'm late guys, my class was all the way on the other side of the campus," I said between breaths. As I had rushed the entire way, not wanted to keep Yukio waiting, I was a little winded. I hadn't expected the boys to be there, but I remembered then that Yukio shared a few classes with Shigeru, as did Satoshi, so Yukio must have invited them to lunch with us. Not that I minded. The more the merrier, after all! It just reminded me of the fact that I was alone in all of my classes.

Well, I guess I wasn't totally alone. Satoshi's roommate, Jamie, was in my Japanese Language class. He had chosen a seat right behind mine, and I swear I could actually feel him staring at me throughout the entire class. It was really unnerving, and I had thought of telling him off, but I was too busy taking notes.

They all muttered the standard lines, such as "don't worry about it," and "we've only been here a minute." "So where are we going?" Satoshi asked, looking out towards the one end of the yard that didn't have a nearly solid wall of buildings blocking the path—the main entrance of the campus grounds. Looking around, I started to notice exactly how many students there were. There were easily two thousand or so making their way off campus, heading to their favorite lunch spots. And those were just those I could see from here. And those leaving for lunch.

Shigeru shrugged. "If we eat out everyday the way we have been together, we'll be broke in no time. Isn't there a McDonald's around here somewhere?" Yukio knew the city best, so we all turned to her.

She looked a little taken aback at first, but she quickly got over it. She gave a shrug that would have matched Shigeru's perfectly had her shoulders not been so slender. "Follow me," she said, and we did so

There was no lack of conversation. We all told each other about what our days had been like so far, what we liked, what we didn't, what our teachers were like. It was nice to have this downtime after working so hard, and I had the sneaking feeling that lunch with these three, my best friends in the world, was going to become the cornerstone of life.

Even the presence of burgers, fries, and sodas didn't slow our talk down. I had completely forgotten about the weird feeling Jamie had given me. Well, I had until he walked into the building and went up to the counter. The most remarkable thing about him was that he was entirely unremarkable. He had dark brown hair cut very businesslike, brown eyes of the exact same color, average height, kind of skinny. He was unremarkable in every way. He still gave me the creeps, and I told my friends as much, and about the way he had been staring at me.

Surprisingly, this only made Satoshi give a little laugh. "What's so funny?" I asked, rather crossed.

"Sorry," he said, forcing himself together again. He ran his fingers through his bangs to get them out of his eyes, something he'd never had to do before. It was something Yukio did all the time. "It's just, he looks at you like that because he has a crush on you."

I flushed, and it made him laugh again. Yukio and Shigeru merely exchanged an odd look. "He does not," I said out of reflex.

"Oh, he does, he does," he giggled. "It's impossible to get him to talk about anything. He's boring really. No fun at all to be in a room with him, trust me. But for some reason I never have a problem getting him to talk about you..." I must have looked positively feverish by then, but he only laughed all the more at my expression.

"But ... I only met him once or twice before today!" I said indignantly. I was determined not to let Satoshi get away with this.

"Young love," he sighed wistfully, as if he were remembering things from years long passed. "He fell for you at first sight. Said you were the most beautiful girl he'd ever laid eyes on."

At that point the staff could have grilled my burger on my face. Desperate to put an end to Satoshi's teasing, I stood up, wheeling around to confront Jamie and tell him while I thought he was a nice guy, I'd like it if he focused his attention on someone else. But he was gone. Simply gone. Apparently, while we had been talking—okay, while Satoshi had been talking and I had been turning into a beet, he had gotten his food and left the store.

I sat back down rather grumpily. I wasn't really mad, but I wasn't looking forward to Satoshi's teasing. But I suppose he must have realized as much, because when I broke a french fry rather menacingly in plain view of him, he gulped and decided a change of subject was in order. You have to love certain things about guys. Break something long and slim and they get the idea very quickly.

The rest of lunch went rather smoothly, and I managed to be colored normally by the time we disbanded in the courtyard. I did my best to pay attention in my final class, but it wasn't easy to do, with Satoshi's innocent though unnerving teasing still ringing in my ears. I didn't know why, but Jamie gave me a bad feeling.

With classes for the day over, I headed back to the dorm. College was officially evil, I decided, as it was only the first day and I already had a small mountain of homework. Guessing by the fact Yukio didn't show up for another two hours or so, I assumed she had four classes, and I felt sorry for her. But she seemed happy. For the most part anyway. I saw something I don't think anyone else would have, and that was only because we had become such close friends over the past week, spending almost every second together.

"Everything okay?" I asked her, looking up from my work.

She smiled, sitting down on her bed and pulling out her laptop. "I'm fine, just a little tired." She slid a disk into her computer as it was booting up. I guess that due to the nature of her classes she needed to do most of her work in digital form. "Why?"

"You just ... looked a little ... I dunno. Weird I guess." I didn't know how to phrase it better.

She just smiled again, though it didn't look entirely happy. "Nah, just tired. So, how was your day?"

She had started typing, and I figured if I wanted to finish my homework before bedtime, I had better get back to work on it. We talked as we worked, and it amazed me how little it took away from my work. Talking to her was easier than talking to anyone else I knew, including Satoshi. I don't know why I felt so comfortable around her, but I welcomed it. It was a wonderful feeling.

"I don't think I like the idea of that Jamie kid having a crush on me. He gives me the royal creeps," I ended up telling her. I know had already said it once, but he had gotten to me.

"How so? Not a crime for a guy to look at a pretty girl, is it?"

I flushed at her compliment, but it was light, and thankfully we were both focused on our work. "No, it's not. But he didn't look at anything else the entire class. I could feel him staring at me, and it made me feel really weird. I don't like it. And from what Satoshi says, he's like, totally obsessed with me."

"Well, just ignore him, then," she told me. I don't know why, but she seemed a little happier now. Maybe it was because she'd had time to rest in the relative comfort of our room.

"Easy for you to say. He doesn't sit behind you in class," I muttered darkly.

"So tell him off."

I couldn't help but smile. "Yeah. If he doesn't stop, maybe I will."

-----

But I didn't.

Well, not for a while at least. A good month or so had passed before I just couldn't take it anymore. I had come to love every part of my new life—time with my three best friends, time spent on the school's training facilities, helping my monsters improve their moves, helping them to look just as flashy as they were effective. I had even come to enjoy schoolwork and all the studying, to a certain degree. It was hard, but I found it very worthwhile.

The only thing I didn't love was the way Jamie kept staring at me any time we were near each other. And since Japanese was a class I had nearly every day, it was a lot of time.

The problem was I was too nice to tell him to leave me alone. I mean, he wasn't hurting me or anything. But ... it just made me very uncomfortable. Another problem was that any time I was about to approach him, he disappeared before I could. He always seemed to be the first person out of the classroom, when we happened to eat at the same restaurant, he would always get his food and leave before I could get near him.

But a month into term, I had my chance. As we were leaving class, he was held back to have a word with the teacher. I waited outside the room for him. When he came out of the room a minute later, he didn't seem at all surprised to see me waiting for him. "Hello," he said. He sounded weary.

"You—"but he cut me off by holding his hands up in surrender.

"Save your breath. I've been annoying you, right? The teacher just told me off for it." He definitely sounded tired. And he had the resigned voice of someone who had been expecting this for a while. All I did was nod. "He said I should 'focus my attention more on work instead of on girls.' I know I spend the entire class looking at you. I just can't help myself ... you really are the prettiest girl I've ever seen."

I couldn't help but be flattered at the compliment, a light heat rising to my cheeks. But I wasn't going to let him off. He'd been doing this to me for a month! "At the very least you should have—"

"Talked to you a long time before now?" he interrupted me again, and again with exactly what I was going to say. "I know, I know. And I'm sorry if I've made you feel uncomfortable." He looked like the uncomfortable one now. "It's just ... I was too shy to talk to you. I mean, you're so beautiful, and I'm ... me." He laughed then, mostly at himself. "I'd have rather had the dream than to try and make it true and lose even that. I'd turn me down if I were you, too."

"How do you know I'd have turned you down?" I found myself saying. I have no idea where it came from. The thing was, before right then I would have turned him down, though suddenly I had the feeling I didn't quite want to.

He shrugged. "Every other girl I've ever liked has. It's why I didn't bother getting my hopes up when it came to you. Especially since you're much better looking than any of them were. And from what Satoshi tells me, a lot nicer, too. You must have a hundred guys after you."

"I don't," I said. My mouth was dry, so my voice sounded a little off. He was still making me feel weird, but it was now an entirely different kind of weird. I couldn't be falling for him, could I? I had thought him a creep for a month, now he just seemed like a lonely, insecure kid who had a crush. And he wasn't unattractive...

He gave another little shrug. He seemed so lonely standing there. It was sad to look at him. "Either way. But now I'm keeping you from your next class. I'm sorry for bothering you, and I'll try not to let it happen again." He started walking away, but it was the opposite direction of where I had to go.

I found myself calling out to him. "I don't even have a chance to say yes if you don't ask me out!"

He stopped and turned to look at me. I think he might have smiled if he didn't seem so terrified I was just playing some kind of horrible joke on him.

"Will you go out with me?"

No, I think to myself. There's someone else I like. I'm sorry, but you're just not that person.

"Sure," I say instead.

And I still have no idea why.

----------

End Chapter V.


	6. Chapter VI

College Daze  
Chapter VI  
By: Sara Miyamoto

----------

--Shigeru--

It was a rather nice Saturday in late October. In fact, it was so late, that the coming Friday was Halloween.

And, as had become a sad practice over the last several weeks, I heard a knock on my door at about ten in the morning. I was not at all surprised to see Yukio standing behind it. She looked a little strange, and it was more than the fact that the usually cheerful girl was so sad. It took me a second to realize she was wearing glasses. They suited her face so well that they were extremely easy to overlook.

"Hey Shigeru," she said softly. I moved aside, and she came in without question. We'd grown into the habit of spending our weekends together. Haruka had turned to spending them with Jamie, and Satoshi was busy using the school facilities to get in some hardcore training to compete for a spot on the school's battling team—tryouts were taking place the first week of November.

"I didn't know you wear glasses," I said as we sat down on the love seat. I had gotten so used to this that her favorite blend of green tea was already sitting on the table, and she took one of the slightly steaming cups, sipping gratefully before speaking.

"I've always worn contacts, but I lost one and it's too much trouble to replace them."

"They look good on you, though I almost wish I hadn't seen them," I said, with a small sigh. The tea had taken a little getting used to, but now I had come to love it. Green tea was naturally bitter, but this variety used cherry blossom petals to sweeten the brew. It was a little pricey since cherry blossoms are such a heavily seasonal item, but I found it more than worth the money.

"Why's that?" she asked. She lifted an eyebrow at me, and it looked entirely different though no less effective from behind the lenses.

I shifted a little uncomfortably. "Because I think I need a pair of my own. I've noticed my vision slipping for a couple years now, and all this reading is seriously starting to strain my eyes. The headaches are relentless." I hated admitted any kind of weakness—a leftover trait from my former life and abandoned ego—but I didn't mind telling her this. I sometimes felt closer to Yukio than I ever had managed to feel to Nanami.

"That's really dangerous you know. The more you strain them the worse they get. You need to see an optometrist soon."

"I'll see one under one condition."

That eyebrow again. "And that is?"

I laughed. "You pick out the frames. I have no fashion sense."

I had been aiming to make her laugh, even while I was telling the truth. It worked. She gave a little giggle. "Careful, Shigeru. A gay man with no fashion sense? You're going to completely shatter the stereotype."

We both had a laugh at that. I had abandoned any sense of justifying my sexuality, whatever it may have been. I loved Satoshi, who cared if that made me gay? I know I'd never be able to care for anyone else the way I did for him.

"So will you?" I asked her, once our chuckles had subsided. I sincerely hoped she would. She was the group's resident fashion consultant—I mean, anyone who could have us look as good as we did when we went out had to know what she was doing, right? She'd even set Satoshi's hair straight, and to this day he was still keeping it that way. Though from what Haruka had told me before she had started spending so much time with Jamie, it was likely due to the fact Yukio had promised to castrate him if he let all the work she had done on it go to waste.

She spent an exaggerated amount of time to think it over. I think what she was really doing was going over what kind of frames she thought would go well with my face. "Well of course, darling," she said in an old- fashioned accent I knew came from some old movie star. "I'll make you look positively fabulous!"

We laughed again. But it didn't feel right. And looking at her, I noticed it wasn't right. "Are you okay, Yukio?" She seemed so sad, even while laughing. Being a psychic, maybe she was projecting her emotions without meaning to. But even if she wasn't projecting, I'd be able to tell something was wrong. Despite our laughter, it wasn't touching her eyes. I hadn't noticed before because of the 'new' glasses, but her eyes looked positively dead, the spark of life gone.

She saw there was no point in trying to lie to me. "No," she said, in a voice so soft it was barely a whisper. "I'm not okay." By the time she finished the last word she had broken down into sobs and a moment later she was in my arms, crying onto my shoulder. For a split second I wish I hadn't asked her, because it had caused this to happen, but I realized a moment later this was something she desperately needed.

I won't deny that a few months ago, a part of me would have been thrilled by the position. But I wasn't the same person I was then. She was like a sister to me, and the only thing I managed to feel right then was concern for her. I held her, whispering "It's alright" over and over to her, trying to calm her down.

Several minutes later, she finally managed, and at the end, she seemed thoroughly embarrassed with herself, but she didn't move. "I'm sorry, Shigeru," she said in that same soft voice as before. It was like she couldn't will herself to be any louder. "It's just ... really hard on me. Not having her around. At first, we spent all our time together, but since she's starting dating Jamie, she's never there. She does her homework with him, eats lunch with him, spends weekends with him..."

I knew she was right. Haruka hadn't eaten lunch or spent a free day with us since she and Jamie had started going out. The drastic change of routine had rattled all three of us, though Satoshi, at least, had his training to drown the sense of loss in.

"She comes home just in time to get dressed for bed, and leaves in the morning before I'm even finished getting ready. I ... I miss her so much."

My shirt was growing steadily damper with her tears, but I didn't care. "I know, Yukio. We all miss her, and it has to be so much worse for you..."

She looked up at me finally. Her glasses were fogged and streaked with tears. "The dance isn't supposed to lie! So how ... how can she be so happy with ... someone else?"

It broke my heart to see her like that. And I knew what she said was true. I had never been able to dance with anyone else the way I was able to with Satoshi. We'd even danced again on a night out, so I knew it only happened with him. And I had managed to end up in the same club as Haruka and Jamie one night. They were dancing, but Haruka's moves seemed sluggish and uncoordinated compared to that first night I had seen her.

"Maybe she just doesn't realize what the dance means. You didn't tell her did you?" She seemed horrified at the thought of it. In fact, the fear flowed from her like a wave, so intense it made me shiver almost as if it were my own.

"Sorry," she said, taking deep breaths to calm herself. "It's just, it's something she has to come to on her own. And I think maybe she had started to, but she's afraid of what it could mean for her. I know things have improved a lot for people like us, but we can't forget that the world is full of homophobes. She wants to be a reporter, but could you imagine what it'd mean for her career if she were ever outed?"

I nodded. It was all too easy to imagine it. Something like it was on the news all the time—someone famous was outed for being gay and they suddenly dropped off the face of the earth.

"Don't give up hope. Sooner or later she'll realize she's not as happy as she could be," I told her. It didn't cheer her up, but I had hardly expected it to.

"I won't give up hope. It's all I have right now."

She stayed in my arms for a long time. I'm not quite sure how long had passed before she said "So. When are you going to the doctor?"

-----

I turns out that I went to the optometrist on Wednesday, since it was the day I had the fewest classes, so it meant I had most of the afternoon free. After a long, uncomfortable testing process during which I was berated for waiting so long to do something about my vision, I was given a prescription for corrective lenses.

The idea of sticking something into my eyes on a daily basis was not at all appealing, so I opted for traditional glasses, and I had arranged to meet Yukio at the mall when she was done with classes for the day. According to the doctor, the store at the mall was the best place in the city to have lenses crafted, and it had the widest array of different frames to choose from.

And I had to admit that when Yukio and I entered the store, I was overwhelmed with the variety. Whoever would have thought that there would be so many different styles? But more impressive than the selection by far was Yukio. She dragged me around the store, disregarding some sections with barely a glance, others after a few seconds' consideration. Only a few of the hundreds of racks of frames seemed to interest her at all.

I noticed one thing, though. The glasses she was looking over for me looked nothing like her own. Hers were black and, compared to a lot of the styles I saw, kind of thick, with rectangular lenses. The ones she was looking at now were thin wire-frames with more circular lenses.

From that point on, it was like some weird tournament to find which pair fit me best. She slid what felt like a hundred different frames on my face, replacing those that didn't pass whatever tests she was performing, setting those that did off to the side. I think the man behind the counter was about to come and help, but seeing the pile of frames and Yukio's determined look, he decided against it.

She had so far narrowed it down to twenty or so, and from those, she eliminated half in each 'round' of the search. When it was down to two pairs, I felt almost like I was the subject of a trial that was coming to a close. I was a little nervous because it was hard to see the lenses myself, but I had faith that Yukio wouldn't let me look silly. She kept switching the two pairs around, looking at me for long moments from every angle.

"These," she said finally, setting one pair back on the rack while handing me the other. Like I said before, they were thin gold-colored wire- frame glasses, the lenses almost entirely circular—the bottoms stretched down the tiniest bit to rest more comfortably against the tops of the cheeks. The frames looked oddly familiar.

"You sure?" I asked her.

"Positive. Both of those pairs look good on you, but these give you a slightly more classic look, like an author or something." I couldn't help but laugh at that. Was it possible she knew that I had taken to writing short stories in my free time? "I do now," she said with a grin.

"Psychics," I muttered playfully, and she laughed. I was glad to see that now it reached her eyes. "But uh, I don't really know..."

She sighed like a patient but exasperated parent. "Okay, give me the frames and the prescription." I did so, and she took them up to the guy behind the counter. She had the brightest smile I had seen in over a month in place. "This," she pointed at the slip of paper, "in these," she pointed at the frames, "for him," she finished, pointing back at me. She fluttered her eyelashes in the most adorable way. "Pretty please?" It didn't really strike me until just then how much her petite build made her look like a little girl. She very easily could have been twelve instead of the seventeen I knew her to be.

Add that to the sheer power of being female, and it caused the guy to shift rather uncomfortably as he looked down at the prescription. "It'll take about two hours," he said.

"Thank you!" she cried cheerfully, practically skipping her way over to me. The guy had disappeared, perhaps to give the slip to someone in the back of the store. "And that, my friend, is how you get quick results anywhere you go."

"If you're a girl. Doesn't work quite so well for guys. If I acted like that, people would think I'm gay."

"But Shigeru, you are gay. Not that I can talk or anything, but...," she pointed out.

"Point taken. Want some lunch? I'm starved," I asked, heading out of the store and making for the food court.

"Sure. I haven't eaten yet today," she said, following me through the crowds. It must have been nice sometimes to be so small you could walk in a larger person's wake.

The wonderful thing about a food court is that everyone can eat something from a different corner of the world and sit at the same table. I had gotten a few chalupas from the Taco Bell, while she had a Subway sandwich that seemed so stuffed it was having a hard time holding itself together.

"So, looking forward to being able to see properly again?" she asked after we had settled down at a table with our food.

"Yeah, though I do wonder how long it's gonna take me to get used to wearing glasses. I never even made a habit of wearing sunglasses," I told her as we started eating.

"Oh, it comes easily enough. Within a week you'll forget there was ever a time when you didn't automatically reach for them any time they weren't on your nose."

"When did you have to start wearing them?" I asked, suddenly curious.

"When I was eleven. My psychic powers started to really develop with puberty, and something about them made my eyes go slightly out of focus. In fact, there are very few psychics that don't have eye problems of some kind. The scientists and doctors who study our abilities think it's because the eyes are such a powerful channel for psychic energy. Even my cousin in Yamabuki City has to wear contacts, and she's one of the most powerful psychics in the world."

I nearly choked on my food, and had a fleeting flashback of choking on a milkshake. In fact, I realized with a little bit of wonder, I was even sitting in the same seat I had been then. "You're related to Natsume-san?!"

She blinked, a little taken aback. "H-hai, my mother is her father's sister. But how do you know Natsume?" I was about to answer when she suddenly slapped herself lightly on the forehead. "Duh! You started your training in Kanto, didn't you? You must have battled her at the gym!"

"That's right," I said, trying to hold in a laugh. It was refreshing to have her read my mind in a way that didn't involve her powers at all. "In fact, I still have the Gold Badge, it's with my others back home."

"You seemed so surprised, though. Can't you see the family resemblance?" She gave a little pose, and suddenly I could see it. Both had completely straight raven-black hair. Both had skin that was almost unnaturally pale. Natsume sported a fuller figure than Yukio, though not by much. The gym leader was several inches taller, but it was very easy to see that both women took their great looks from the same source.

"Actually, I can. Sorry, it was just kind of a shock. I haven't thought about Natsume-san in years." It was true enough. I was always in such a rush back in those days, trying to stay ahead of Satoshi so that we wouldn't meet, that I rarely had the time to seriously talk with let alone get to know or befriend anyone I met.

"It's not that big a deal, you know. Gym leaders have families, too. And I seem to recall the fact that a certain relative of yours is a lot more famous than anyone I know could ever hope to be." I must have looked incredibly flustered, because she started laughing. The thing is, she did have a point. All things considered, I had overreacted pretty badly.

"I know, and I'm sorry. I don't know what's wrong with me lately," I told her. She started to say something, but I cut her off. It felt nice to be on the other side of that situation. "Okay, okay. I do know what's wrong with me and I don't want to admit it. I can't help it."

She laughed again. "Oh, come on, let's hit the arcade. We still have time before your glasses are ready." I agreed, so after tossing our trash in the bins, we made our way to the mall's arcade.

I was never really one for arcades, mostly for the fact I never had time for them. And I found that most of the games were rather difficult to play with blurry vision. Maybe it would be better once I got my glasses, but right then, at least, I got my tail trounced royally. I did find it relaxing, though. It was a comfort to be able to beat up or shoot things (or trying to, in my case) in a completely safe environment.

About an hour and a half in, Yukio finally came to my rescue, telling me time was about up. We made our way back to the vision center, and before we could ever say anything, the guy went in back and got me the new glasses. They would have been very expensive if my grandfather didn't have me on one of the best medical insurance policies there was, and the only reason they cost me anything at all was because I bought an extremely durable plastic case to store them in when I wasn't wearing them.

Yukio marched me over to a mirror so I could see how they looked, but I didn't put them on right away. The moment of truth had come, and I found myself intensely nervous. More nervous than I could ever remember being before even a big tournament. She was such a great friend, though. She let me stand there looking like an idiot for a solid minute or so before she spoke.

"You can't see how you look in them until you can see. And you can't see until you put them on."

She was right. And I realized that it was a little childish to be so nervous. After all, the doctor had said I needed them, and Yukio had worked so hard to pick out ones that would look good on me. So, taking a deep breath, I slipped them on, and looked at the mirror.

For the first few seconds, things were even blurrier than I had grown accustomed to, but then my vision cleared up, and for the first time in a long time, I didn't have to lean up close and squint to be able to see myself clearly. And with a little start and a soft laugh to myself, I finally remembered why these glasses had looked so familiar to me. A whole lot of the empty space in my bookshelves was no longer empty, though I doubted my grandfather would have approved of a lot of the material. Most of it was an extensive collection of manga that I had grown fond of.

And my glasses looked identical to the ones worn by Yuki Eiri from the manga series called Gravitation.

No wonder Yukio said they made me look like an author.

-----

"So let me get this straight," Satoshi said between mouthfuls of hamburger and fries. "There's a party tonight in some old abandoned warehouse downtown?"

"That's right," Yukio told him with a smile. "A costume party for Halloween. And, since it's a Friday, the party is guaranteed to last all night!"

"Eep ... a costume party? But I don't have any kind of costume!"

"Neither do I," I admitted. "I wasn't really expecting to have anything worth doing on Halloween, old as I am."

"Oh, don't worry. I have plans for you two," she said with a grin. Her tone of voice made me suddenly uneasy, and hearing a gulp to my side, I knew I wasn't the only one.

"So uh, is Haruka coming?" Satoshi said, trying to turn the subject away from Yukio's 'plans'. But it wasn't the best of questions to ask her, as she suddenly looked very depressed.

"I don't know," she said with a sigh. "I won't have a chance to tell her about it myself, so unless Jamie takes her ... no, she won't be there."

"That's too bad," he said, and his tone told that even he could tell how bitter she sounded. I hadn't told him about her feelings for Haruka, and I knew for a fact she hadn't told him either, but the more time she spent with so little contact with Haruka, the more it was starting to show.

"Her loss," she said softly. I tried to catch her eye, but she was refusing to look at me.

I gave up after a few seconds and asked "So what are you going to dress us up as?"

She finally looked up, smiling again. "Oh, you'll find out soon enough. In fact, as soon as our classes are finished, we should meet at your place, Shigeru. It'll take us a while to get ready."

Satoshi agreed readily. I tried to catch her eye again, hoping for some hint of what she was doing, but she still refused to meet them.

"Alright. This'll be worth it if for no other reason than to see what you do to us."

-----

_I'm going to be who?!_ I yelled inside my head. The only reason I didn't yell out loud was because Satoshi was just a couple feet away, watching as Yukio worked on my hair.

The mental shout caused her to wince. _Please don't yell, _she said softly to my mind._ It can be pretty painful. And you heard what I said. You're going to Yuki Eiri._

_And Satoshi's going to be ... who?_ I asked, doing my best not to scream the thoughts at her.

_Shindou Shuichi._ You had to give the girl credit—even while I was arguing with her, she was working away like nothing at all was happening.

_Are you completely mad?_ I asked, dumbfounded. She couldn't be serious. There was no way on earth she was serious.

She laughed inside my head. _No, I'm not mad, and yes, I'm completely serious. After all, I got the idea for this from you._

_Why? How?_ was all I could think of to ask.

_How? Because of how much you thought you looked like Yuki and because I'm a Gravitation fan, too. Why? Because it'll give you two an excuse to act like you're dating_, she said calmly. How could she be so calm? My heart was pounding like an out of control jackhammer. _It might be enough to break through Satoshi's inhibitions. It may be enough to make him see how much he really wants you. Maybe in the morning, he won't want to just be acting anymore._

I thought that over. It always had a chance to work, right? Maybe a really small one, but a chance none the less. I found myself suddenly desperately hopeful. _Alright, I'll go along with it. But I'm holding you responsible if something goes desperately wrong._

_I guess those terms are acceptable_, she said with a little laugh.

I looked over at Satoshi. It was kind of amazing that we had had such a long conversation—mostly about him—while he was less than ten feet away and he had no idea it had happened. Having a psychic best friend had its strong points, I decided.

"Done!" Yukio declared a few minutes later. "Go check it out while I start work on Satoshi. And change while you're at it," she said, handing me a bag of clothes that I assumed was meant to be my costume.

Satoshi took my place as I headed into the other room, and she didn't miss a beat and went to work on his hair within seconds. I had to chuckle to myself. Yukio was definitely a girl of many talents.

I couldn't believe my eyes when I reached the bedroom and looked in the mirror on top of my dresser. It seemed several inches of my hair had simply vanished, though I know she didn't cut it. It now went, at it's very longest, to the bottom of my neck. It was also blonde. Combined with my glasses and the fact I was so tall, I definitely looked like Yuki Eiri. It was kind of freaky the magic she had worked.

The outfit, at least, was very simple; she had just given me a pair of black pants and a red button-down shirt that when I walked out of the room, she commanded me to leave unbuttoned.

"Why?" I asked, though I already knew the answer.

Even while she was talking to me, she was gradually turning Satoshi's hair a shade of pastel purple. "Because he's more recognizable with the shirt open. You know, Satoshi, your hair is perfect for this style," she said.

I then noticed that his hair did fit for the character he was playing. He had been letting it grow out some, and it was now reaching his shoulders in the back, which was just how long Shuichi wore his in the manga.

"Thanks," he said. I wondered if he had any real idea who he was becoming.

"Now, when we get there, you need to act all sour and leave-me-alone- ish, Shigeru. And Satoshi, you need to act all hyper and cling to Shigeru as much as possible," she told us. I knew the character of Eiri well enough to be able to act it, though I wondered if I would be able to act like that all night, or if I would need to.

"That shouldn't be a problem!" Satoshi said cheerily. With the dye in his hair dry, Yukio was putting it up—a ponytail in back and a tiny pigtail on either side of his head.

"Good. Now time to change," she said, handing him his bag of clothes and shooing him in the direction of my bedroom. "And now, time for me. See you in a bit." And with that, she disappeared with a bag of her own into the second bathroom.

Satoshi was out within two minutes, and I had to try very hard not to laugh. He definitely looked the part now. His outfit consisted of a pair of overly baggy denim shorts that ended just below the knees, a yellow T- shirt, and a denim jacket. And the word 'bitch' was stitched on all of it—smaller at the hems of the shorts, large on the front of the shirt and back of the jacket. I wondered if Satoshi had any idea what it meant—he had never really learned to speak much English, let alone how to write in the language.

"It's a nice look for you, Satoshi," I said, still trying to hold the laughter in.

But I wasn't laughing for long because a moment later, he was leaning against me, tracing a finger down my chest through the open front of my shirt. "Nothing compared to you, Shigeru." And then he stepped away, laughing. "Just practice for tonight," he said, giving me a little wink. I tried to laugh along, but it was difficult. He had just broken any barrier I might have put in place to deal with the evening's forced closeness.

An uncomfortable—at least for me—silence reigned until Yukio stepped out of the bathroom. She was hardly recognizable. She must have been wearing some kind of wrapping because her already small breasts had vanished completely. Her black hair had turned a lighter shade of blonde than mine had—platinum I think it's called. She had on white pants and a white jacket with a high collar, under which was a purple tank top. And around her neck, over her regular choker, was a large black leather collar that wouldn't have looked out of place on a dog.

"Seguchi Tohma, I presume?" I asked with a laugh.

"In the flesh," she said. Her voice was a little deeper than normal, though not by much. Tohma had a notoriously feminine voice. She looked down at her watch. "Crap, it's almost six already! We need to get going!" She started herding us towards the door where our shoes waited—it may be a little old-fashioned, but I had taken to the tradition of having anyone who came in remove their shoes at the door.

"I hope you know how to get there," I said, slipping on a pair of loafers (I would have felt more comfortable in sneakers, but Yukio insisted it was part of the costume).

"You should know me better than that by now," she said, slipping on a pair of black boots. Shuichi was the only one lucky enough to be able to wear sneakers. The lucky punk.

"Come on, I wanna party!" he said, and Yukio laughed.

"Well, who are we to keep the rock star waiting?"

So we left, Yukio sitting next to me in the front seat to give me directions. Minamo was a big city, so it took us nearly an hour to find the place, and the sun was beginning to set when we got there. We found the closest place to park that we could manage, and as we walked closer to the building we could hear the music.

"This is a warehouse, not a nightclub," I muttered as we made our way to the entrance. There was a collection of buff-looking guys wearing black around the door. "So why the hell does it look like there are bouncers?"

I noticed a faint blue glow light her eyes for a moment as she stared intently at the men. "They're just that, bouncers. They're making sure no one too young or too old gets in, and making sure everyone's in costume." Satoshi didn't think to ask how she could suddenly know that.

There was a small crowd of people waiting outside, but somehow Yukio managed to get us inside with minimal difficulty. Even though we looked like we were dressed relatively normally, the bouncers didn't ask us about our costumes.

Once inside, Satoshi was playing his role almost too well for comfort. He clung to me constantly, and I found it wasn't hard to get myself to try and pry him off of me, if only for the reason he was getting dangerously close to finding out what he was doing to me. At least I had Yukio there, and talking to her helped keep my mind off things. At least at first, anyway. After about half an hour she saw a group of friends from some of her classes.

"I'll see you later, guys. Have fun!" And with that, she was gone, and I was left with an extremely clingy Satoshi.

This was gonna be a long night.

Looking around for the first time really, I finally took in where we were. The warehouse was huge, about the size of the gymnasium back at the campus. There were still lots of old crates leftover from whatever had been stored here before, sometimes stacked high enough to form makeshift walls. Apparently whoever had organized this party knew what they were doing, because there were a lot of speakers around, along with stands with strobe lights at the tops. The wires were covered with duct tape, but you still had to watch your step in some places.

It was a little uncomfortable walking with Satoshi practically glued to my side, especially with the looks some people gave us (it seems the world still has a long way to go to eradicate the useless emotion of homophobia) but I couldn't deny to myself that I enjoyed his touch. If only he didn't want to dance. But he did. I just didn't think I could take it right then, so I suggested we get some drinks first, hoping for enough time to have him forget he had asked me for a while.

When we finally got the bar (made, I noticed, of a table formed by pushing several crates together) I noticed they had a wide selection of drinks, most of which were alcoholic. Neither of us was old enough to drink, but I doubted that most of the other people here were. I made myself a cup of sake, and Satoshi, not knowing what a lot of the stuff was capable of, followed my lead.

I thought about warning him of the potency of the chilled rice wine, but I figured by morning he'd learn his lesson—after all, who was I to tell him what mistakes he shouldn't make? I'm still not totally sure what happened the first night I had gotten drunk on the stuff, but I had a strong idea, because ever since that night one of my cheer leaders had been exceptionally clingy. That was, in fact, what eventually caused me to tell them all to leave me the hell alone and I left them shell-shocked in a hotel lobby.

I was a little used to it, so the one glass only gave me a light buzz after a few minutes, but Satoshi's cheeks were flushed by the end of the cup, and his eyes looked a little odd. But even as tipsy as he was he was still stubborn as a mule.

"Come on, Yuki," he said, staying in character as Yukio had asked him to do. "Dance with me. Just this once. I won't bug you for the rest of the night if you do."

He sounded sincere, and if it meant I could go the rest of the night without him asking, without him making me feel things I was ashamed to feel... And after all, it was just one dance, right? "Alright. Just this once," I mumbled, and he brightened up like a star suddenly come to life.

It was my great misfortune that a slow song started as he dragged me out onto the floor where most of the people dancing were. But he didn't seem at all deterred. He forced my hands to his waist and slipped his arms around my neck. I shivered at the touch, for it was something I had wanted for so long now, but it soon passed as what Yukio called 'the magic of the dance' washed over us, and we began to move to the music.

All the evening's discomfort seemed worth it right then. Like before, dancing with Satoshi brought on the feeling like everything in the world was right. It was the same feeling I'd had that afternoon beneath a tree nine years ago. But this was more. I was older, able to understand what it was I felt. This wasn't the innocent touch of our youth, but my hands on his narrow waist, his on the back of my neck, the feel of him pressed against me.

I should have wondered at that, but I didn't. When had he gotten so close? I didn't know. At that moment, it felt so right that I didn't care. And then I felt something new.

He was using his arms around me to bring himself up, me down. And a moment later, I felt his lips against mine, and suddenly my clear head exploded in a torrent of thoughts.

It was something that shouldn't be happening, but I let it. It felt so wonderful to finally feel what it was like to kiss him that I kissed him back hungrily. He welcomed my tongue when I offered it to him, and I felt I could have died right then and there and had no regrets.

But then regret did set in. _This isn't right_, I thought to myself. _He's drunk, he has no idea what he's doing_. I tried to pull away from him, but I wasn't trying hard, and he was trying very hard to hold me to him. _If you don't stop this now, there's a chance he'll never forgive you, and no chance you'll ever forgive yourself_. So I did the only thing I could do.

I stood up.

I was a lot taller than he was—he'd had to go on tiptoes and pull me down to be able to kiss me. So when I went to full height and pulled my head back, his lips slid away from mine. He opened his eyes, blinking up at me, looking confused. "Yuki?" he asked softly. But I didn't answer him. In his shock from the breaking of the kiss he had loosened his grip, and I took the chance to pull myself free, and I was gone as quickly as I could manage to be. "Shi ... Shigeru?" he called after me, but I didn't stop.

I brushed passed Yukio on the way out. She didn't say a word, neither did I. With her powers, none were needed—right then, I must have been broadcasting what had happened to every psychic within a hundred miles. But she also knew I was capable of dealing with things myself for a while, so instead of following me, I saw her head back to the dance floor, where Satoshi was still standing where I had left him.

He looked so hurt, so lost. It made me feel ten times worse in the brief moment I looked at him watching me leave. He looked like he was about to cry.

But then, so was I.

----------

End Chapter VI.


	7. Chapter VII

College Daze  
Chapter VII  
By: Sara Miyamoto

----------

--Satoshi--

For a few precious moments, my life was perfect.

I had had a cup of sake, and it had been enough to warm me from the inside in the chill of the late fall night (the old warehouse was incredibly drafty). The warmth also seemed to melt away the last of the fear that I had carried for years, the fear that kept me from doing what I had wanted to do. And so I did it. After so long, I had done something I had only ever managed in dreams before.

I had kissed Shigeru.

It was the most wonderful feeling in the world. The heat from the rice wine was nothing compared to the heat of his body against mine. His lips were nothing like I expected—they were soft as putty, and melded to mine so perfectly that it seemed as if we had been created in that position and then separated. When I let his tongue into my mouth I felt desire as I had never known it, and we were so close he had to feel my excitement, for I could definitely feel his.

For a few precious moments, he was mine, and I was his. And then it was gone.

He suddenly jerked away from the kiss, and I opened my eyes to look at him. "Yuki?" I asked him softly, trying to stay in the character I was playing on this particular Halloween night. But he didn't answer. He had wrenched himself from my arms and began to walk away from me. "Shi ... Shigeru!" I called after him, too stunned my legs to work. Several people stopped dancing to stare at me, but I didn't care. With every step that separated us, my heart cracked to smaller and smaller pieces.

He only looked back at me once during his flight from the building, but from the distance I couldn't really make out the expression on his face. Whatever he was feeling wasn't enough to make him come back to me, though. Seeing him walk through the door was the final blow, and I felt myself shaking. I knew the tears weren't far away, but I held them in as best I could; I didn't want to start crying surrounded by all these strangers.

My rescue came in the form of Yukio. She looked nothing like herself at the moment, but she was a welcome sight nonetheless. I tried to speak, to say something, anything, but what could I possibly have said? I didn't seem able to manage that simple task anyway—my body trembled so violently it grew harder merely to stand, and my throat felt as if someone had shoved in it. Luckily she didn't need for me to say anything at all, and she led me away from the crowd, away from the building. It wasn't the same way Shigeru had left, and it seemed like no time at all before we had found our way to a park, dimly lit with only star and moonlight.

She nudged me towards a bench and I sat down gratefully, and I felt her sit next to me. Everything was quiet for a time, and I managed to see enough of my surroundings to know that if it were daylight the park would have been beautiful. But eventually my shaking turned to broken sobs and the tears I had been dreading finally spilled forth. At least now the only witness was Yukio, and I knew her well enough that I felt safe to cry in her presence. The news of my tears was very likely never to leave that bench.

I have absolutely no idea how long we were there. Neither of us talked, so I couldn't even use conversation as a means of guessing at the time. We were silent even after I had run dry and managed to take enough deep breaths so that my sobs had diminished to the occasional hiccup. When it happened, we both stood and found a taxi after not too long. She had the driver take us back to the campus. She was even nice enough to walk me to my dorm.

At the door, I felt I needed to say something at least, but when I opened my mouth she cut me off. "It's okay, Satoshi. I know. Go rest, now." I nodded, relieved, and went inside as she walked off.

Jamie wasn't there, not that I had expected him to be—he was undoubtedly out somewhere having the time of his life with my best friend, whom I didn't even seem to know anymore. I was kind of relieved—I didn't want him to see me like this. Pikachu had been asleep on my bed, but the sound of the door closing roused her. She let out an irritated growl that quickly melted to a concerned coo as I flung my shoes and jacket off, collapsing into the bed fully dressed. She had the good sense to dodge.

"Pikapi?" she asked softly. I wrapped her in my arms, sighing deeply. And then I told her about what had happened. She would understand. She was the only one I had ever told about how I felt towards Shigeru. By the time I had finished I was crying again, but I didn't care. There was only Pikachu, and she was family.

She curled up around my neck, doing her best to comfort me. It must have worked, because I eventually fell asleep. If I dreamed that night, I never remembered them. I'm kind of thankful for that. I don't think I want to know what I might have dreamed.

-----

I spent every spare moment of the weekend working with my Pokémon. The tryouts for the school's battling team started on Monday afternoon, and it was much easier to lose myself in training than to think of what had happened. I had homework over the weekend as well, of course, but it was a taxing experience and it kept my mind too busy to wander towards thoughts I didn't want to have.

When Monday came I didn't even have lunch with Shigeru and Yukio. I think that maybe Shigeru had tried to talk to me after the class we shared was over, but I did my best to make myself disappear before he could manage. I just couldn't bare to hear what I knew he was going to say. _I'm sorry, Satoshi, but I'm not gay. We can't have that kind of relationship. That kiss should never have happened._ I heard the words all the time in my head. I wouldn't be able to stand hearing them in my ears.

I was extremely grateful when five o'clock rolled around and it was time for the tryouts to begin. I would finally be able to see where I stood compared to the rest of the trainers at the school. And if I made the team, there would be practice a lot of the time, so I'd have a completely valid excuse for not spending time with Shigeru.

I was rather surprised by the number of people that were there. Minamo was a school of thousands, but there were well over a hundred people in the stadium. Everyone was given a piece of paper with a number, along with instructions to fasten it to the front of their clothes, and I noticed I was number 151. More people were not far behind me, and I guessed there was easily three hundred or more sitting in the stands by the time everyone was there. I wondered how they could possibly be planning to thin out this large a crowd, but I didn't wonder for too long.

"Good afternoon, everyone," a voice called out over the stadium's speaker system. "And thank you for coming. Tryouts for the Minamo University Pokémon Battle Team will begin shortly. There are twenty positions on our team and all of them need to be filled—new students are at no disadvantage and have every chance of making the cut as members of last year's team. We'll be narrowing you down to one hundred today—" I breathed a small sigh of relief. I was confident enough in myself to know I could make it into the top hundred. "—and down to the final twenty by Friday. Whether you make the team or not, as long as you do the best you can you have nothing to be upset about. There's always a chance to make next year's team.

"For today we'll be measuring your team of Pokémon's offensive capabilities and accuracy. When your number is called, please make your way down to the field and to the nearest open examiner." I noticed that as the person making the announcements was speaking, a large section of the field was opening up to reveal a very large swimming pool—it was easily the size of the one inside the gym. "Good luck to everyone."

Being about in the middle of the crowd, it was over two hours before I was called. In that time, I saw plenty of talent, but nothing truly spectacular. Except for one person. I don't think I would have paid much attention to them if they hadn't been completely covered by a dark green-brown cloak and hood. A lot of murmuring occurred among those of us left in the stands when the cloaked figure made their way down to the field.

The mystery intrigued me, so I watched as the person tested, and I must say I was definitely impressed. None their Pokémon missed a single target, and their power was incredible. And that was totally ignoring the fact that the lineup of Pokémon itself was something to admire. Umbreon, Arcanine, Alakazam, Aggron, Gyarados, and Salamence. All were known to be exceptionally powerful monsters (Well, maybe not the Umbreon... Members of the Eevee family were better known for speed and finesse than pure power), and these all seemed to be particularly good specimens. The final two were greeted by a healthy amount of fear from everyone in the stands and on the field. Dragons were known to be as notoriously wild as they were powerful, but their trainer handled them with ease.

Seeing such exceptional skill dampened my spirits a little, and at the same time fueled my determination. I had no doubt, none at all, that this mystery person was going to make it all the way onto the team. They were too good not to make it. And while I might not be better than they were (and I didn't see how anyone could be), I was suddenly very desperate to earn a place next to them. I had seen a lot of skill in my time as a trainer, but everyone I had ever seen paled in comparison to this person. To be on the same team as them would be such an honor!

When my number was finally called, I made my own way down to the field, determined to show that I was as good as the cloaked wonder. The problem was I wasn't quite sure I was that good. But I was gonna try.

I know I must have done very well. The most targets any of my monsters missed was one and they all measured to be fairly strong. Three of my Pokémon really stood out—Pikachu broke the meter measuring her voltage; my most recent acquisition, Espeon, used one disk during the accuracy test to shatter the other four; and Charizard melted the fire-proof thermometer that was measuring the heat of his flamethrowers. Swellow, Corphish, and Sceptile all preformed well, scoring high results, though didn't give the kind of display the others did.

I would have liked to stick around and watch the rest of the tryouts, but I had a lot of homework that needed to be done and it was already after seven. Besides, they weren't announcing the results until the next day—a list of the people that passed would be posted on the bulletin board inside the Pokémon gym. So, with Pikachu on my shoulder, I headed back to my dorm.

I wasn't surprised to find it empty. But right then, I didn't care that my best friend was off with my roommate. I got to work on my homework and despite the huge chunk of time spent at the tryouts, I managed to finish before it was time to hit the sack. Jamie came in a few minutes before I finished, but predictably, he didn't speak to me. He just went straight to bed, and I followed suit not long after.

-----

The next day was a little disappointing. While my name was on the list of the hundred people who had made the first cut, the paper said that the next round of tryouts wouldn't be until Wednesday.

So it was that Tuesday passed painfully slow and sleep that night was fitful. I could barely sit still in classes on Wednesday, and when five rolled around I was a nervous wreck. Being in the top hundred was one thing, but today the number was being cut to forty. I knew I had ranked higher than that in three different league tournaments, but I couldn't help but worry.

We were given new numbers as we entered the stadium (I guess one hundred is still a little high to be going by names), and told we'd be divided up into groups. I didn't know if I should be happy or upset that because of our numbers the cloaked trainer and I were in different groups. When I learned that the day's exam was a series of one-on-one battles against the other members of our group, I was definitely happy.

Each group had ten members, and inside the group we were halved, so that each examiner was handling two smaller groups—we'd be facing the other four members of our groups, each time using only one Pokémon. We'd be graded on overall performance, not just if we won or lost.

"Remember," the examiner told us as we moved out onto the field—it was sectioned into ten different fields, but the stadium was so large that it hardly made a difference—there was plenty of room for even the largest of monsters. "Your monsters are to be selected before your opponent releases their own to prevent trying to take advantage of type before the match even begins." Everyone muttered agreements. "Alright, numbers 31 through 35 line up on the left side of the field, 36 through 40 on the right."

Number 31 just happened to be me, so I took my place on the left side of the field. I don't know why I felt so nervous. I had placed high in three of the world's most prestigious leagues, had championed the small league in the archipelago south of the continent of Kanto. I was a well-known and respected trainer already. But when I was called to be a part of the first battle, I felt as if I were a rookie again. I think it had to do with the fact that this setting was utterly alien to me.

I had no idea what to expect from my opponent, but then, he didn't know what to expect of me, either. I wanted to open with Pikachu, but it would have been much too obvious I was going to use her if I didn't select a PokéBall from the six I carried on my belt, so I chose her empty one and waited while my opponent chose one as well.

My nervousness melted away as the battles wore on. I only lost one of the four matches I was in, and that was mainly because Sceptile had the great misfortune of being matched against a Ninetales (though I gave it enough of a fight that it wasn't likely to hurt my score much). In the time between my matches I tried to watch those of the mystery person, but since they had arrived last, they were numbered 100, which put them at the far end of the field, and trying to watch one match through five others was more than a little difficult.

When we were done, we were told that, once again, the results would be posted the next day, and that the final round of tryouts would be on Friday. When we were dismissed, I looked around, but the cloaked figure was nowhere to be seen. It was like they had simply vanished.

I had the weirdest dream the next two nights. I was with the cloaked trainer, who even in my dreams wouldn't reveal who they were to me. We had become ... partners, that's it. We were supposed to work together, battle together as a team. But we had become more than teammates. Partners on more than the field of competition.

The thing that stuck with me most was the feel of the cloaked trainer's arms around me. And the fact that it felt very familiar. Very right. It made me feel complete. I'd felt that touch before...

-----

I totally spaced on Friday. More than one teacher got onto me for not paying attention in class. But I couldn't help myself. I had read the board in the gym the previous afternoon and seen my name as one of the forty listed. I barely felt the loss went I ate lunch alone, doing my best to make sure I didn't end up in the same place as Shigeru and Yukio.

I wondered what the final test was going to be. I thought back on all of the training I had ever done (or at least as much of it as I could manage to remember). My mind kept drifting to the mystery of the cloaked trainer. Did the staff even know who it was? Well, of course they must have ... but whoever it was had convinced them to simply list them as 'Anonymous' on the list of names.

All in all, it made sure I didn't learn a single thing that day, except for the fact I didn't care if I learned anything that day. I was desperate to be on the team, the teachers had to understand that.

And when it was finally five o'clock, I felt positively giddy. I'm not sure what happened to the nervousness I felt. Maybe it was knowing that today, no matter what the outcome, would be the end of it that calmed me. Whatever it was, I was thankful it was there, because I didn't want to be nervous during the final tryouts. It could lead to a mistake that could mean blowing my chance at a spot on the team.

"Well, congratulations to all of you for making it this far. Just one thing left," the head coach told us as we gathered around on the field. "There are forty of you here, but only twenty spots on the school team, so while you're all excellent trainers, we can only take half of you this year. And so, your final test is to battle an opponent for your spot on the team. We've paired you up very carefully, so don't worry if you lose—there's always next year's team to look forward to. Now, the field has been divided into four equally sized courts, and each sports a comfortably sized pool to host water Pokémon. Do your best, and good luck to all of you."

I had either the extremely good or extremely bad luck of being in one of the first four matches. As the eight of us took our places in the trainers' zones, we heard, not from the stadium's speaker system, but from a megaphone, "The rules are as follows. All the matches will be a full six on six battle. Trainers are prohibited from switching a Pokémon out of battle until it has become unable to continue. The first trainer to eliminate all of their opponent's monsters will be declared the winner and earn a spot on the school team."

That was when four whistles from the referees at each field sounded at the same time. With not being able to switch a monster out of battle, I didn't want to send Pikachu in any earlier than I had to. I decided to start with Corphish. I think my opponent was happy with his decision to start with Vileplume, but Corphish charged through the storm of petals it unleashed and knocked it into the air with a vicious swipe of its claw. It was bombarded by a stream of bubbles and was out cold by the time that it hit the ground.

Magnectric was his next choice, and now it was my time to worry. The bulky Corphish couldn't match the speed of the smaller, nimbler monster, which dodged the streams of bubbles while shocking the larger creature until it passed out. I had nothing exceptional to use against an electric type, so I sent out Sceptile. The battle was a rather fierce one, but Magnectric was winded from the fight with Corphish and didn't manage to dodge a smack from Sceptile's powerful tail.

My joy at the victory was short lived, though. The next monster he used was Ninjask, which was easily the fastest Pokémon that anyone knew of. The tired Sceptile couldn't manage to cope with the blinding fast speed of the bug, and went down with a few swipes of the small but sharp claws.

I decided on Swellow, hoping the natural advantage of birds against bugs would prove helpful, but the longer that the Ninjask stayed in action, the faster it seemed to become. It also seemed to be even more agile in the air than my bird, and while they spent a long time flying circles around each other, it seemed like I had barely caused a scratch when Swellow fell from the sky.

He was leading three knockouts to two, which was a bad thing for me. Two of my remaining monsters had a type advantage, but I doubted they could manage to hit something moving as fast as the Ninjask, which would make their advantage of type useless. So I went with the third, which was a type weak to bugs. Espeon came out to the field.

The strategy I had planned worked perfectly. The other trainer, encouraged by the type mismatch I had made, ordered his bug to go directly into the fray, but as it closed in, it bounced off the barrier of light that had suddenly shimmered into existence around the furry little feline. The impact had been enough to stun the Ninjask, which had hit the barrier at supersonic speed (my ears rang for a good ten minutes as proof), and that was all I needed for Espeon to send to the thing tumbling to the ground from the force of a Psybeam.

The next up was Absol. Now I was worried. Espeon's psychic attacks were completely useless against it, and I wasn't allowed to switch out. Espeon gave it all she had, and managed a few solid hits with her Quick Attack before Absol managed to sink its fangs into her, which was all that was really needed to made her pass out.

Two Pokémon left, I decided to go with Charizard. The Absol had a hard time competing with an aerial opponent, not that it didn't try very hard, but all Charizard really had to do was stay out of range and launch a few streams of fire. It was a similar story with the Breloom that came next. It just couldn't manage to touch the soaring dragon, even when it swooped in to swipe it with its wings.

I felt sure now. I was ahead five to four, and Charizard, while a little winded, was still fighting fit. I might have been worried about the fact that he sent out a Walein, but he made the mistake of having it go into the pool. Charizard had to avoid the jets of water it shot, but I knew it was over already. Charizard sent a stream of flame into the pool, which quickly began to boil and steam. It didn't take long of being nearly cooked alive before the icy walrus had had enough and fainted.

I was happy, so very happy. I had done it! It had been a decidedly difficult battle, though not the hardest I had been in. But I couldn't manage to show it all that much. I felt suddenly very tired. I guess the week's worth of tension and bad nights' sleep had finally caught up with me.

I shook hands with my opponent, then wandered over to where the other winners, my new teammates, were waiting, watching the other battles. I had been third to finish out of the four opening matches. I started to feel a little better as I watched the other matches. They were rather spectacular, almost as good as a league tournament. And for once, I was only a spectator, my own part finished.

The cloaked trainer was in the last set of battles—there were already sixteen of us sitting on the sidelines, watching our fellow students battle to earn a spot next to us. We were seated just right so that I had a perfect view of the field the mystery person was battling on.

It was amazing, really. I only ever got to see two of the cloaked figure's monsters battle. They started with the Umbreom, which despite its small size managed to take down three of its opponents before the forth got in a strike solid enough to knock it out. Next came the Salamence, which wiped the remaining three from the field like they were play toys it had grown bored with.

The figure shook hands with their opponent before making their way over to the rest of us. As they came closer, I saw that they were very tall, and when they turned their head just right, there a flash from under the hood; whoever it was wore glasses.

That's when I seemed to freeze from the inside. I was so stupid not to see it earlier. I had seen that Umbreon battle before. On more than one occasion. It had saved my life. And all of a sudden my dream made horrifying sense. No wonder those arms felt so familiar... I had, indeed, felt them before. Just a week ago, in fact. I hated my subconscious at that moment. It had known all along who the mystery trainer was, but had betrayed me by refusing to let my conscious mind know.

Shigeru lowered his hood. There was an odd smile on his face, a mixture of shy, coy, nervous, uncertain. His eyes right then were the gray of a stormy sky, and I knew that it only happened when he was conflicted, unsure of himself.

"Hey, Satoshi. Guess we both made it, huh?"

----------

End Chapter VII.


	8. Chapter VIII

College Daze  
Chapter VIII  
By: Sara Miyamoto

----------

--Haruka--

I think I'm going insane. I truly, honestly do.

I have what should be the perfect life. I make very good grades, taking classes that will lead me to a career in journalism. My father is the leader of a Pokémon Gym, which means my family is held in rather high esteem, and we have never been hurting for money. When it comes to my own Pokémon, I train them for contests rather than battles, and I do good. Maybe not great, but good. I have a nice-sized collection of victory ribbons.

And on top of all that, I have a wonderful boyfriend.

The thing is, I don't always think he's wonderful. Sometimes he seems just plain weird. I can never manage to explain it. When I'm away from him, I start feeling funny. Like there are things I should see but can't. But when I'm with him, these happy feelings just flood through me and I totally forget about any thoughts of him seeming odd.

See? Insane. I'm going insane. Totally, stark-raving mad.

It doesn't help that, when I'm away from him, away from Jamie, I miss my friends. Satoshi and Shigeru and Yukio. Especially Yukio. I had known Satoshi for nearly three years now, Shigeru for nearly as long, though I hadn't spent near the amount of time with him as I had with Satoshi. Yukio I had only met about a week before term started, a few months ago. But we had grown so close so fast. She had made me feel so wonderful. Especially when we danced together. There was something almost magical about it.

But since meeting Jamie, it seemed I never had time to spend with them anymore. And we used to spend almost all of our spare time together. I did my homework with him (which was several hours every day). Spent my weekends with him. Spent the random day off of classes with him. I didn't share any classes with my friends. And I got home so late, Yukio, who happened to be my roommate, was usually asleep.

She looked so sad when she was sleeping. I remember she used to always be smiling, even in her sleep. In the mornings, when we were getting ready for class, she'd be so cheerful that it was almost annoying. But not anymore. I don't really remember the last time I had seen her smile. In the mornings, she rarely managed to wake up early enough to get ready without having to rush, while it used to be I could never manage to make it to the shower before she did.

I missed those days so much. But it was only when I was away from Jamie. When I was with him, everything in the world seemed all right. I totally forgot all my problems. And he was so attentive. He never made me want for anything. He was polite, a real gentleman. He wanted to ... take things further. But he never seemed too upset when I stopped it. The perfect guy, really. Except...

I think it's a fact of the universe. There always has to be an 'except' in life. You're never allowed to be completely happy. Never allowed to be completely satisfied. There always had to be something getting in the way. There's always that thing that makes you go "Everything would be perfect, except..."

I'd have been happy with my life. Except for the fact my boyfriend made me feel so weird. Except for the fact that something, somehow, had separated me from my best friends.

I should have been happy. I really should have. But I was miserable. And not even the thought of Christmas break, which started in just a week, was enough to make me feel better.

-----

The alarm woke me quickly. I had gotten used to it, though it had taken a while for me to do so. Living on the road, like I had for over two years, I had gotten used to sunrise or a friend waking me. Now it was the piercing tones of the clock next to my bed. The clock showed the date as well as the time. It was Friday. At least, if nothing else, I had the weekend to look forward to. Not that that meant much anymore.

I looked at the other bed. Yukio was still asleep. I knew she wouldn't wake up because of the alarm. I had tried leaving it going before, but it never worked. I sighed to myself, turned the alarm off, wondered what possibly could have happened to us. I remember when the alarm would go off, and I'd be grouchy as hell for being woken up so early, but her infectious mood would wake me.

But not anymore. And maybe never, unless a miracle happened.

I got ready for class on automatic. It was a fairly simple routine. Pick out the day's outfit. Shower. Dress. Pack the things I would need for the day. And then walk out the door. I was doing all those things, but my mind was elsewhere. It was back in a time a few months past, trying to figure out what had happened, where I had gone wrong.

But I couldn't. I honestly couldn't. I was having a very hard time remembering what had happened back then. In fact, I had a hard time remembering quite a lot of the past few months. I would maybe start to remember something, and suddenly find there was nothing there to remember. Or I remembered something else instead, something that happened at the same time as what I was trying to remember, but not what I had expected.

It was a serious headache. And it did nothing for my theory that I was going insane. I mean, what sane person finds memories that they ... well ... don't remember? I was remembering things I was almost certain never happened. And those memories always seemed to obscure the memories I was reaching for, but could never find.

I was so distracted, I didn't even notice Yukio waking up. I was halfway into the hall when she stopped me. She didn't say anything. I just suddenly felt a hand on my shoulder. The touch was so light it would have been easy to miss it, but it felt as if she had clasped me with the talons of Ho-oh itself, though I knew it was my own guilt coming up with that image.

I felt her hands around my neck, shivering at the touch. Felt the sudden, comfortable snugness of a leather strap around my neck. My choker. I had nearly forgotten it, something I did far too often. When I was confused, like I was so often nowadays, it was the one thing I owned that seemed to bring any measure of comfort.

I turned, preparing to thank her. But the words were caught somewhere in my throat and couldn't manage to get themselves out. The scene in front of me didn't make sense. Yukio looked almost funny, standing there in the oversized shirt she wore to bed, her hair mussed from restless sleep. But that wasn't what got to me.

What got to me was that, over her shoulder, I could see my dresser. On top of said dresser, right where I had left it the night before, was my choker. And Yukio's neck was bare. The only time I had ever seen her without her choker was when she was just about to shower or had just finished. There was the faint trace of the strap on her neck still, a thin line that managed to be paler than the rest of her notoriously pale skin. A small section that the sun hadn't seen in years.

I looked up at her face, finally. She was smiling, but it was sad. In fact, I'm fairly certain I'd never seen anyone look so sad in my life. I tried to say something, but I had no idea what to say, and she didn't give me a chance. She gave me a gentle nudge, moved me into the hall, and closed the door.

I was thoroughly confused. Yukio had just given me what I was fairly certain was her most treasured thing in the world. And lately I had been so horrible to her. Not for doing bad things, but for doing nothing. Ignoring her. And she had done that...

I wiped the tears from my eyes as I walked, my fingers stroking the band of leather when my eyes were clear. There was something I should see that I couldn't. I used to be able to, but it was gone now. Just gone. Like it had never been there. Except it had been there, I remembered it! I just ... don't know what it is I was remembering.

"You okay?"

I jumped at the voice, startled out of my stupor. Jamie was standing in front of me. I hadn't even realized I had left the dorm, let alone reached the building for my first class. I couldn't believe I had spaced quite that badly.

"I'm ... I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?"

"You're holding your neck like it's hurting you. Maybe you should take that off." He reached up to my neck, moving his fingers back to try and get at the clasp of the choker.

"No!" I practically screeched, jumping back and grabbing him his hands. I easily surprised myself as much as him. "No, it's not that. I just slept a little wrong, so I'm a bit sore."

"You sure?" I couldn't blame him for not buying it. I wouldn't have in his shoes. But there was more to it than just that. He seemed ... angry. Like he knew I was lying and could never forgive me for it. He scared me.

"Yes. Just a little sore is all," I said, knowing full well how lame I sounded.

"Well, if you say so," he sighed. He didn't seem angry. Just concerned. And I suddenly found myself wondering if I had just been imagining it. Jamie had never come across as scary. He was too ... er ... nondescript to be scary. And he was always so nice! How could I have thought he was going to hurt me?

By the time we reached our Japanese class, I had totally forgotten that anything had happened.

-----

The day passed like most others. Which wasn't a bad thing. Weird as it may sound, I absolutely loved my classes. I mean, these courses were preparing me for the career I wanted, a tough career. Not everyone has what it takes to be a journalist. But my teachers said I had real talent, real potential. And it was fun. Hard work, yes, and lots of it. But I loved it.

There was a time, not so long ago, that life was perfect. I had classes, which I loved. I had lunch with my friends, which I loved. And then, after more classes, I would sit in my room and do homework. With Yukio. Which I loved maybe a little too much. Not that I had ever said anything. It was ... embarrassing. It made me think of things that I probably shouldn't have been thinking about.

But now, class was all I had. I mean, I enjoyed spending time with Jamie. Or, at least, I enjoyed the time while I was with him. It always seemed ... lackluster afterwards. Like it wasn't what I had wanted to do, even though at the time I had wanted it. And now it was routine. Part of life.

A part I didn't want, most of the time. But one I tolerated. I didn't know why. Partly because I was afraid the others would be so mad at me that they wouldn't forgive me for abandoning them. Partly because ... I don't know. I just don't know. There was just something inside of me that kept me from setting things the way they used to be.

I was snapped out of my thoughts by the feel of arms around me. I had been walking through the halls after my last class, heading to the place I usually met Jamie without even really meaning to. Habit. He hugged me. Kissed me. I returned them distractedly. Luckily, he didn't seem to notice my lack of enthusiasm. But that could have been because of the fact I was never exactly enthusiastic about being intimate with him.

"You okay, love? You looked lost," he said, sounding for all the world like a concerned boyfriend. And suddenly, that was all he was. A guy concerned about the girl he cared for. Concerned for me. Someone I wanted to be with.

"I'm fine," I lied, trying to sound pleasant, but finding it hard. I felt so weird. "Just thinking ... about Christmas break, you know? Next week's the last week of the semester."

"Yeah. You're going to spend the break with me, right?" He was smiling. Like he knew there was no way I could possibly say no.

I blinked, completely dumbfounded for a moment. I hadn't even considered spending the holiday break with him. Just the fact he was asking was ... almost insulting really. "I ... I can't, Jamie. My family would kill me if I didn't spend the time with them. I haven't seen them in months."

For just a moment, he seemed angry. Like he couldn't believe I had said no to him. But it passed like a flash of lightning. It also rattled me as much as an unexpectedly close bolt of lightning would. It was frightening, but already I was thinking I must have imagined it. He looked so calm.

"I understand. Christmas really is a time for family, isn't it? It was selfish of me to even ask you to spend it with me." I couldn't help but smile. He may have gone a little too far, but at least he had realized his mistake. "We'll just have to make the most of this last week, won't we?" He smiled. It was an unsettling smile. But a moment later, it was just his normal one. I shivered. And it was nothing like the mildly pleasant shiver Yukio had given me earlier. I was scared. And I had no idea why. And, moments later, I wasn't scared anymore, wondering why I ever had been.

"Yeah, I guess so."

"Why don't you come to my room? Satoshi will be away at those stupid Pokémon practices all evening." Jamie had never liked Pokémon. He never explained why, but he seemed to flat out hate them. He never even let me bring my own Pokémon along with me when we went somewhere together. I knew my monsters must have been so insulted, being left behind so much. But for some reason, I never put up much of a fight. Jamie didn't want them around, so they didn't come.

"Okay, sure," I found myself saying, out of reflex. I didn't really want to go to his dorm. He'd probably order us dinner from a restaurant, and we'd talk about stupid things while we waited. After the meal, we'd start kissing, and he'd start moving his hand somewhere I didn't want it, and I'd be forced to stop him. It happened all the time. It was boring. It was something I hated, when it wasn't happening. Loved when it was.

Why was I so screwed up? I mean, I had never done any kind of drugs or anything. Never drank anything more than a few glasses of wine or champagne. Never hit my head really hard. So why was I losing it like this? Why did nothing make sense to me anymore? Why did the inside of my head feel like Swiss cheese? And why, why, why did it all start when I met Jamie outside of class that day?

Zoning out must have become my favorite hobby. If it were an Olympic sport, I would definitely take the gold metal. I had zoned so badly, I hadn't even realized we had reached Jamie's dorm until he had already ordered us something for dinner. Hadn't even realized I had sat down at the room's small table.

I tried to pay attention to the conversation, but it was hard. The talk was boring, mostly things about school, how well we thought we were doing, how good our grades would be. Jamie had bored me near to tears in the past, talking about his life. It was so ... normal! I was used to exciting people. Trainers, coordinators, breeders, professors ... people with real drive in their lives. Jamie was the ultimate in normal. He was raised in a suburban town, gone to school his whole life like a normal kid. Never even tried to get a trainer's license. Can you say boring?

I mean, look at the people I hang out with! Satoshi and Shigeru have been trainers practically their entire lives, and now Shigeru is studying to become a professor. When Takeshi was still with us, he was a breeder (and a good cook!). I mean, my dad's a gym leader! I couldn't stand normal. Normal was boring. And who wants to be boring?

But, boringness aside, I was also so confused. So many different thoughts. Some thoughts I didn't want. Some I did, but couldn't manage to get to them. It was like there was something purposely keeping them away from me. Just like the memories I wanted but couldn't find.

I was relieved when the food arrived. It was pizza. I would have preferred something a little less cliché, but I didn't say anything. Food was food, and a full mouth was always the perfect excuse to keep quiet. And I wanted quiet. I didn't want to have to talk. As sad as it may sound, I just wanted to feel sorry for myself, because I couldn't manage to bring myself to make things right.

The problem with food was that it only lasted so long. A pizza only has so many slices. And when they were gone, which seemed to happen unnaturally fast, my shield was gone. Eaten. The one thing keeping me safe had just been devoured like ... well, like a pizza in a college dorm room.

I stood up, trying desperately to think of an excuse, a reason to leave. But Jamie knew me too well, he'd know if what I said was a lie. I was trapped.

He stood along with me. Moved around the table. Wrapped me in a hug, began to kiss me. Resigned to my fate, I started to kiss him back. It was a lot harder to enjoy it this time than it usually was. I felt the usual happy feelings but they were ... I don't know how to describe it. It didn't feel anywhere near right.

And then I felt Jamie's hand on my breast. It shocked me. I knew he wanted things to go further than I had allowed, but he had always been a touch more tactful than this. Instead of inching his way up and me stopping him before he got there he had simply done it. I shoved his hand away.

But it came back almost immediately. Now I was more than a little shocked and very annoyed. I was flat out mad. I pushed away from him, glaring. The first facial expression I had given him in a long time that wasn't forced. He was smiling like Christmas had come early.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" I demanded.

"Getting what I should have had months ago. Now get undressed."

I blinked, not quite able to believe what I had heard. There was no more warm, happy feeling. Just a cold seed of fear. "Y-you're nuts if you think I'm going to do that. Ever. In fact, I think I'll be leaving now."

I turned to go. Except that I didn't manage to turn. Or to go. I felt like my arms and legs were clamped in place. I couldn't move. I couldn't move! And Jamie was...

He was still smiling that terrifying smile. He had the look of a predator about to close in on its prey. On me. He shook his head in what would have been a sad expression if not for that smile. "You really should have just done what you were told. It would have been easier on both of us." He stepped up to me. Gave me a shove that made the backs of my knees hit the edge of his bed, sending me sprawling back on it. "Now, like I said before: Get undressed."

I opened my mouth to tell him to go to hell. To scream for help. To do anything. But my mouth wouldn't open, the screams no more than muffled noise through my closed lips. And my hands ... they were moving! And I wasn't the one moving them! They were doing as Jamie had commanded, undressing me. Unbuttoning my shirt, unclasping my jeans.

I started to cry as the reality of the situation began to sink in, the tears flowing freely, but the sobs checked by a mouth that wouldn't open. I was going to be raped. And there was nothing, absolutely nothing, I could do to stop it. When this happened to most women, they could at least scream, try to fight. And somehow, he was making me help him!

I was in nothing but my underwear, my fingers reaching for the clasp of my bra, when salvation finally came.

And when salvation came, it made no attempt to be quiet. The door crashed open. And when I say crashed, I don't just mean it opened really hard. I mean something hit it hard enough to knock it from its hinges, sent it flying several feet into the room before clattering to the floor, nearly split in two. And behind the door...

Behind the door was Yukio. The person I wanted to see more than anything. The last person on earth I wanted to see. And she looked angrier than I had ever seen a living being look. I don't exaggerate when I say the expression on her face would have made wild Gyarados turn tail and run. I would have been terrified if I weren't so happy to see her.

But that was okay. Jamie was terrified enough for us both. I guess anyone would be scared of a girl strong enough to knock down a door made of solid oak. I should have wondered how a girl smaller than I was had managed that. Just like I should have wondered exactly how Jamie had made it so I couldn't move, how he had moved me without touching me. But I was too scared to wonder.

The thing is, Jamie wasn't scared for long. After the initial shock, he was mad. Nowhere near as mad as Yukio, but mad enough. He was so mad his eyes looked like they were glowing. No ... they were glowing! A blue light that erased the normal color of his eyes completely.

I turned to Yukio, scared for her, already trying to tell her to run away, because, for the moment at least, I was free of whatever hold had been placed on me. But I cut myself off mid word. Yukio's eyes were glowing, too. The same bright, rippling blue as Jamie's. The effect was all the more startling from behind her glasses.

I looked back and forth between the two, feeling rather like a spectator at a tennis match. There was a weird feeling in the air, like a tingle. And suddenly I realized that the two were fighting, even from across the room. Straining my eyes, I could just make out the faint ripples in the air, a side effect of the energy the two were pushing at each other.

Scared as I was, I couldn't help but be amazed. _They're psychic_, I told myself as calmly as I could. _He used his psychic power to make me unable to move. And she used hers to break the door down so she could get in._

I wished I could see who was winning. I was so worried. If he could do what he did to me, what might he do when he was mad? What would he do to Yukio?

Thankfully, I didn't have to wait for long. It took maybe five minutes from the time the door came flying into the room. Five minutes of the most intense fear of my life—not fear of what had nearly happened to me, but what could happen to Yukio. But she was the winner. I could see it long before it happened. Jamie was sweating, panting with effort. Yukio breathed hard, but it was her anger, not effort, that caused it.

Jamie let out a howl like he had been stabbed through the chest, though it was his head he clutched as he stumbled back. He went back so far that he hit the window. I heard the telltale tinkling of broken glass, and I looked away. I couldn't help but wince when I heard the dull thud from outside. It was a second-story room, so the fall wasn't one most people could just walk away from.

Yukio pulled me up from the bed, into her arms. Held me, for what seemed like forever. Despite what had happened, I couldn't help but notice the fact she had my choker on. But it wasn't long enough. Even after what felt like hours in her arms, I felt a drastic sense of loss when she released me.

"Get dressed, Haruka. We need to leave. Now." She wasn't angry anymore. She was calm. Collected. In control. I needed that of her right now, and she knew it. I nodded.

"Is ... is he ..?" I tried to ask as I pulled my clothes on. I would be embarrassed later. A lot of noise had been made. More than likely the police were on the way.

"He's not dead. But he will never bother you again. I promise." I believed her. I didn't know what she did to him. Probably didn't want to know. I would have enough nightmares over this. I don't know how, but I managed to get dressed. Pull my shoes back on.

She herded me out the door, through the hall. Just as we reached the stairs, Shigeru and Satoshi rushed up the last of them, Pikachu clinging for dear life to Satoshi's shoulder. I think Satoshi must have seen the tear stains on my cheeks.

"Haruka?" he asked, slowing down. But Shigeru headed him off, uttered a soft though stern "Later" before hurrying him towards the broken door. Little Pikachu looked back at me, her small rodent face looking as concerned as her owner's.

Yukio took me back to our room. On the way, just as we were entering the girl's dorm building, I heard the sirens and saw the swirling pattern of lights that indicated a police car. I'd never been so glad to have nothing to do with the police. Traveling with Satoshi seemed to involve an unusual number of police officers.

"You should get a shower. It'll help you relax," she said once we were inside. She fished my favorite nightie out of the closet, handed me fresh panties from my dresser. I didn't have a reason to refuse. And I definitely felt dirty enough.

I went into the bathroom. Took the water as hot as it would get for as long as my skin would let me. Hoping, to no avail, that it would wash away the feeling that crawled over my skin.

I know I spent far too long in there. I couldn't help it. I tried to think, but my mind was blissfully blank, and I didn't know why. I figured, after what had just nearly happened, I wouldn't be able to move, let alone function at almost normal. And even though the water nearly cooked me through it was so hot, it did help a little.

I brushed my hair once I was out and dried off. Slipped on the things Yukio had picked for me. She was pacing the room in her oversized shirt when I went back out. She looked even sadder than she had when I left that morning, something I had thought impossible. She whirled around to face me the moment I opened the door. She pointed me towards my bed, suggesting I should lie down.

Instead, I sat on the edge of her bed. Something was bothering her, something beyond what I had known to have happened. She was nervous. You'd think, considering she had just saved me from an ordeal most women would rather die than go through, she'd be relieved. Maybe even happy. I was determined not to let her get out of this without telling me.

She sighed, resigned. She was a psychic, after all. She must have known what I planned to do, known there was nothing she could say to change my mind. She sat on the bed next to me, close enough that our legs touched. I shrugged off the guilty pleasure it caused, determined not to let anything distract me. I wasn't sure how much longer I could hold my sanity together.

"I wish I didn't have to do this. I really do. You're going to hate me for this." I tried to speak, to tell her nothing could ever make me hate her, but she stopped me before I could manage it. "You have no idea what this means ... I would give anything to keep you safe. To not have to do this. But there are laws." Her voice was soft, the words rushed. She was definitely nervous. Afraid. I'd never seen her like this before.

"I hope you can forgive me one day," she said. I tried to speak, to say something, to reassure her. But as I started, I noticed the tears that had begun to leak from her eyes. Whatever she was going to do, it truly was something horrible. At least to her. And I suddenly found that I had no words to describe what I needed to say.

She pulled me further onto the bed, sat me on my knees in front of her. She was still then, for a few moments. Watching me as I watched her. It was heart wrenching to see her look so sad, to watch her cry. I wanted to reach out to her, but it just didn't seem like the proper time.

When she finally moved, she surprised me. She lifted her hands, placed them on my cheeks, cradling my face. She leaned forward, the closeness making me close my eyes out of reflex. For a moment, just a moment, I thought—hoped—she was going to kiss me. Do something to make me forget what had nearly happened. But it wasn't our lips that met, it was our foreheads. She was so close I could feel her breath and it was shaky. She was still crying.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered.

I thought maybe what she was doing would hurt, and that's why she didn't want to do it. But it didn't. There was something almost pleasant, a soft tingling. But it was only there for a moment. That tingle, that little bit of power that she used on me, did what I had been trying to do for months. It erased all those memories I knew weren't true. Opened up the ones I knew were there all along, but couldn't find. It filled in all those blank spots that had made me think I was crazy.

I wasn't crazy. But that fact didn't bring me any kind of relief. But knowing I wasn't crazy came with a price. Because I also knew I had already been raped. Not my body, like had nearly happened tonight. But my mind. He had forced his way into my head, made me give him things I didn't want to give him. Things meant only for someone else, someone I wanted. Someone I loved.

Every day for the past several months, I had been a victim of the worst crime it was possible to commit.

No wonder Yukio hadn't wanted to do this. It was like I had been punched in the gut. I suddenly couldn't breathe properly. But I didn't hate her. I'd never be able to do that.

I felt my shoulders shaking. Could feel the tears leaking from my closed eyes. I didn't try to hold it in. I had every reason in the world to cry. By the time the sobs started, my face was buried against Yukio's neck. I could feel her holding me, one arm around my middle, the hand of the other stroking my hair.

As sad and angry and hurt and all those other things as I felt, I couldn't help but enjoy her touch. It was comforting. Familiar. We'd danced a few times, before Jamie had come along. It always felt so right, having her there in front of me, touching me. It felt like that now, even though I was crying.

When I finally fell asleep, still in her arms, I'm not sure how I managed it. But I didn't have a single nightmare. Maybe I used them all up while I was still awake. Because, for a long time after that, my sleep was the only place I could escape from them.

----------

End Chapter VIII.


	9. Chapter IX

College Daze

Chapter IX

By: Sara Miyamoto

----------

--Yukio--

I'm Yukio. I was born and raised in Yamabuki City, in Kanto, though right now I'm a student at Minamo University. Why so far from home? Well, Minamo has the best courses on electronics engineering and computer programming. And, since those are the courses I'm majoring in, it only makes sense to want to go to the best school for them.

Being so far from home, I did kind of miss my family sometimes. But I was far from lonely. I had the best friends in the world. First was Satoshi. Satoshi is _very_ energetic, which tends to give him a tendency to act without thinking. He's also a little on the dense side, but it's just dense enough to be cute, sort of like Sakura from Card Captor Sakura. He's a very serious Pokémon trainer, though, even managed to make it onto the school's battling team.

Then there's Shigeru. He's the best friend I've ever had, really. We get along amazingly well, and we understand each other. We understand that some parts of each other's lives are best not talked of, even with each other. We have similar interests: I got him heavily into manga and anime, and he got me into classical theatre, things neither of us had been able to enjoy in our previous lives. It actually kind of amazed me that Shigeru liked something so old fashioned, being the modern kind of guy he is, but it didn't amaze me nearly as much as the fact that _I_ liked it. Shigeru had been a seriously dedicated Pokémon trainer, too, though I knew he was at the school because he was going to become a researcher like his grandfather. That fact didn't stop him from making the school's team with Satoshi, though.

And finally, there's Haruka, the girl I was lucky enough to be roommates with. How can I put it? Haruka is ... my soul mate, I suppose. The only person in the world I can be totally, absolutely happy with. If life were a puzzle, I'd have to have her to complete it. She's amazing. She's not as hyper as Satoshi, but she's so full of life, so happy about the world. She's an optimist at the same time that she's a realist. She keeps Pokémon, like me, but she doesn't train them for traditional battles—she focuses on special contests that measure beauty and grace over power.

Or at least, she's usually like that. The past week has been really rough. She's had trouble sleeping, barely been able to eat anything without throwing up, hasn't managed to make it to her classes. Luckily, it was the last week of the semester, and most of her tests had been done earlier.

But it's been rough on me, too. It was Friday morning now, the last day of school. I hadn't slept, not even for a minute, all week. I wouldn't let myself, because falling asleep would mean leaving Haruka without protection, protection only I could give her.

I can't really bring myself to say what she went through, but you've already read about it. It was horrible, something worse than a lot of people could imagine. It would have been bad enough if it had been her body that was violated, but as sad as that is, it happens every day. There are people trained to help victims recover from that kind of rape. But for this ... for having the one thing that no one should ever be able to touch ransacked in the way that happened to her...

I was her only shield. I was a psychic of respectable power. And I used those powers to sort of siphon off as many of the bad feelings as I could. It was hard. Not only did I have my own feelings to deal with—rage at the boy that did it to her, sadness at knowing what she had gone through and would continue to go through—but I was drawing an incredible amount of her own feelings into myself.

It was easier when she was asleep. The unconscious mind was easier to manipulate because it didn't really focus itself on anything. When she was awake, though, however much she wanted not to think of what had happened, a part of her mind kept trying to drag her back to it.

It was a night and day struggle. If I slept, I wouldn't be able to help her. She was a strong person, one of the strongest I knew, but she wasn't able to deal with what had happened to her on her own. I don't know of anyone who would be able to. And the honest truth of it was that I couldn't handle it anymore. I was about to break. Seven days without sleep, two people's worth of emotional stress...

If I didn't get help, I was going to die. And that wouldn't be a very good thing for either of us. I knew from the start I couldn't manage this alone, but it was impossible to leave before the Christmas break began. What I had in mind meant that Haruka would miss spending Christmas with her family, but I don't think that, at the time, she'd have been able to show her face to them, let alone spend a happy holiday.

I wondered what time it was in central Kanto as I listened to the unfamiliar ring of an off-continent call. I knew _someone_ would be awake, but it would be a wasted call if it wasn't the person I needed to talk to. When the call finally connected, a pleasant face I hadn't seen before appeared on the screen. The woman was a little older than I was, with short black hair and green eyes. I could tell she was wearing a traditional kimono.

"Yamabuki City Gym, Erika speaking," she said. She sounded far too cheerful for it being so early. But then, I reminded myself, it wasn't so early in Yamabuki.

"I need to speak with Natsume-san. Please tell her it's urgent," I said, biting my lips nervously, hoping I wouldn't be told she wasn't there, or that she was asleep, or busy with a challenger.

"Hold on a moment. I'll go and get her." The screen changed to stark blue, the phrase "Please Wait" flashing in white letters. Two minutes that seemed like forever passed before the familiar face of my cousin came onto the screen. "Moshi moshi? Oh... Yukio-chan. You don't look very well. What's wrong?" I wished we were closer, so I wouldn't have to say the words. But even Natsume isn't strong enough to read minds from half a world away.

And so I told her. It took me a while. I was crying by the end of it, because saying the words out loud managed to make the situation all the more real to me. "I can't handle the strain anymore, Natsume-sama," I told her. She was my elder, my teacher, someone I respected a lot, which is why I addressed her in such a formal matter. "I need to sleep, but I can't leave her alone. Can you help me make her better?"

Her face remained expressionless throughout my tale. It would have been shocking if I didn't know her so well. I knew that beneath the calm surface she was furious that someone with our powers had abused them so horribly. And that she was concerned for Haruka and me. Natsume may be what a lot of people would call 'creepy', but she is an amazing person. Once you take the time to get to know her.

"Of course I will help you, Yukio-chan. I'll make sure your quarters are prepared for you and your ... friend's arrival." She allowed herself a small smile. I found my face turning beet red beneath the trails of my tears. So Natsume hadn't needed her psychic powers to see the fact I was very much in love with the person I was bringing to her. "I'll have the entire gym focus to teleport you here. You need rest, and soon. It's rather surprising you haven't gotten yourself trapped in a feedback loop."

I nodded softly. It hadn't been easy. Even more important than draining away Haruka's negative feelings had been making sure I didn't accident project my own. You know how if you get a microphone and speaker too close together, the tiniest noise will make a loop that gets loud enough to drive you mad? Well, the same sort of thing applies here. If I accidentally let my own bad feelings project out, Haruka would pick up on them and begin to feel even worse. I would then pick up the fact she was feeling worse and feel even worse myself. Which she would feel. It would keep going in a cycle that wouldn't end until we were both insane with grief.

"I ... I need some time. I need to talk with her about it. And to tell my friends where I'll be. Give me two hours, okay? I'll make sure to project a beacon so you'll be able to find me." I had given myself two hours to wake Haruka, talk her into going halfway around the world, gather enough things together to last us three weeks, and speak with Shigeru. It'd have to be enough time.

"Very well. I'll see you soon, little one. Just stay strong for a bit longer." The screen went blank, and I sighed to myself.

Two hours. It wasn't going to be easy, but it would have to be done. At least it was Saturday. I didn't have to worry about the fact I was missing classes. I could barely think at all, anymore. I could literally feel myself shutting down. Where was...

I heard a knock on the door. Now that I knew to check, I could see instantly that it was Shigeru. Normally I could tell the moment one of my friends was anywhere near me, but now ... well, I _was_ very tired. I opened the door, grabbed the cup I knew from habit more than telepathy that he was holding. I took a large gulp before checking to see how hot the triple espresso was. Luckily, the closest Starbucks was a few minute's walk from here, and he had actually walked it.

Now that I was able to sate myself, I moved aside, let him in. I sat on the edge of Haruka's bed, since she was asleep in mine. I was glad she was facing the wall, away from us. I didn't want Shigeru to see her face right then. It was a very sad sight. He sat next to me, and I think he was able to tell the fact he couldn't see her was a good thing.

"How're you holding up?" he asked.

"I'm about to die. Literally. But I'll be able to sleep soon. In two hours, we'll be in Yamabuki City." I had told him the day before that I planned on taking her to see Natsume. Natsume would be able to do what I couldn't. She'd be able to teach Haruka how to shield herself from that sort of psychic assault, how to make her feel safe again. And once she felt safe again, she could begin to heal. And so could I.

"Have you talked to her about it yet?" I'd swear he was psychic. He had the annoying ability to say exactly what I didn't want him to.

"No. But she'll go. She _wants_ help, but doesn't know where to get it. She can't stand the thought of going to her family right now. When I tell her, she'll know it's the only way. She has to." I was trying to convince myself as much as him. If she said no... Well, she just couldn't say no. It was that simple. Because the consequences of her saying no were things I couldn't bring myself to think about.

"Well, if you only have two hours, I should let you go. You need to pack and talk to her, don't you?" I nodded in response to his question. "Besides, I need to get ready to leave, myself. I promised Ojiisan and Nanami I would spend Christmas with them."

"Have a good time," I said, trying to sound cheerful, but barely managing a whisper. He understood, though.

"Aa. You take care of yourself. And her. I still want to have three friends at this school when I come back."

Speaking of which... "How are things going with Satoshi?" I asked him.

He frowned slightly, seemed to deflate a bit. "Well, Coach Yuri seems to think the two of us are the most amazing trainers she'd ever had on her team, and since our battle strategies compliment each other so well, she's paired us up as doubles partners. Which means we've been working together a lot. But it ... it's always felt like work. He never wanted to be around me once practice was over. But now..." he sighed a deep sigh. "He's been staying with me since his dorm's off-limits. We've been talking, carefully and slowly. Not sure if any progress is being made, though."

"He's still confused and upset. Maybe once the break is over, once he's had time to think things over on his own, he'll open up more," I said, trying to comfort him. I honestly had no clue. I didn't have the energy to spare to try and search out Satoshi and probe his thoughts. But I was pretty sure I was right. Satoshi and Shigeru fit together like ... well, like Haruka and I did. Once we were both better.

"Yeah. I hope so. I'll see you when school's back in," he said. We both stood, and gave each other a long hug. It was the last we'd get for three weeks.

"Bye Shigeru," I said as the door closed.

Well, one problem down. Two left to go.

With half an hour to go, I felt I was ready. I had packed two of Haruka's largest suitcases with the things I felt she would need, and just about all the warm clothes she owned. Yamabuki had notoriously cold winters, and we'd be right in the middle of it. It was hard to remember winter even existed, living here in Minamo, on the beach.

I only had one small duffel bag for myself, but then, I was going home. I had plenty of things back in my room at the gym, where, before leaving for Minamo, I had spent nearly eight years training as Natsume's apprentice. Technically, I was still the one who would take over ownership of the gym if Natsume relinquished control. And don't get me wrong—I was good enough to do the job, and I would enjoy it. But Natsume was still very young, and very talented. By the time she was ready to give up the job, I'd likely be just a few years behind. Besides, I loved working with computers even more than I'd like running the gym.

Two problems down. Only one left. The most important one, so of course, it would be the most difficult. I had to talk Haruka into coming with me to Yamabuki City.

I stepped up to my bed, where she still lay sleeping, took several deep breaths to try and steady myself. I was almost gone, and I knew it. Waking her up would make this last half-hour a mental hell, but I didn't have a choice. I couldn't take her halfway around the world without her permission.

"Haruka?" I said softly, gently shaking her.

It took longer than I figured for her to come around. I guess she had been clinging to sleep because it was the one place she was able to feel safe, the one place I could really protect her. But, finally, she lost her grip on it, and turned over to face me. "Hm?" she mumbled sleepily. Already I could see the depression setting in on her face.

"Remember when I told you about my cousin Natsume, in Yamabuki?" I asked her. She nodded, and I could feel the confusion in her. The memories of her terrible incident momentarily forgotten as she tried to figure out what I was talking about. "She ... she's offered to help. To teach you how to protect yourself, so ... so it can never happen again. She's offered to help you recover."

I nearly passed out by the onslaught of her emotions. Hope, doubt, fear. A whole lot of fear. It dazed me so much I didn't even realize she was passed it until she was speaking. "Wouldn't that mean going to Yamabuki?" Her voice sounded really hoarse. Too much sleep and not enough fluids. She was nearly as close to biting it as I was.

"Yes," I said, already knowing the protests she was starting to say, and saving her the trouble of using her battered throat. "I know it would mean not spending Christmas with your family. But do you honestly want to, all things considered? They could comfort you, but little else. You _know_ Natsume's the only person who can really help you right now." I wasn't being very nice, but I couldn't find it in me to be so right then. There was maybe fifteen minutes before the teleportation, and I was right, and she _did_ know it, even if she didn't want to admit it. She missed her family a great deal, and wanted to be with them.

"You're right," she admitted after a few moments' thinking. She was crying, silently, but still crying. I could see the tears falling. "When ... are we leaving?" she managed a minute later.

"Less than fifteen minutes. I already packed your things, you just need to get dressed. You don't want to meet the welcoming committee in nothing but a nightgown." It was a really half-assed attempted at a joke, even worse than I was with Shigeru when I had been so depressed, but she let out a sob that might have originally been a chuckle. I handed her the outfit I had picked out for her, one warmer than she needed here, but would appreciate once in Yamabuki. She disappeared into the bathroom to dress.

By the time she was out, I had gathered the three pieces of luggage in the center of the room, and pulled on shoes and socks. Seeing her own waiting in front of me, she quickly did the same. "How..?" she started to ask, but couldn't finish. She didn't need to, though.

"You'll see. Here, hold my hands, and close your eyes," I said, offering my hands across the luggage. Her hands were cooler than they should have been when they clasped mine. I closed my eyes, focused as hard as I could. It wasn't easy, trying to stretch my mind across the vast distance that separated Houen and Kanto

Luckily, the trainers at the gym, led by Natsume, had already started. I didn't go far before I felt the presence of their pooled power, and I drew back, leading them to my physical body, and, of course, to Haruka. I felt a familiar tingling, though the soft gasp that Haruka gave said it wasn't so familiar to her. And a moment later, we weren't alone, not where we had been.

"Yukio-san," Natsume greeted me formally. Chan was an honorific she would never utter in public, especially among the ranks of her trainers. The gym was a wonderful place, often filled with delight and laughter, but it was also strictly ruled. There was too much power inside the building not to have a strict code of conduct.

"Natsume-sensei," I greeted in return, equally as formal. I unclasped my hands from Haruka's, though she was reluctant to let me go. I had a feeling it was more discomfort than anything. One of the hands I left lazily near her. "This is my friend, Haruka. Her father is a gym leader in Houen." There was a mixture of oral and mental murmuring among the assembled trainers, which totaled nearly a score. True guests were rare, especially guests as prized as another gym leader's child.

"Please see to it that she is made comfortable," I said, completing my end of the formalities. It was for show more than anything. Strangers, especially ones without psychic abilities, were traditionally frowned upon in the gym. The trainers had to be shown that this was a formal guest, and any disrespect aimed at her would be harshly reprimanded.

I didn't hear the last line of the little ceremony, said by Natsume, though I know it happened. I'm not even sure whether or not I hit the ground, or if someone managed to stop me before then. I was out cold a long time before I reached it.

-----

When I opened my eyes, I was looking at a ceiling that was both familiar and strange. I had slept under it thousands of times, though not for around six months now. It almost made me miss waking up to the ugly paneled ceiling of my dorm room.

"You're finally awake," a soft voice said. I turned quickly, saw Haruka sitting at the computer on the other side of the room. She looked rather blurry, since I hadn't put my glasses on. Even through the blur, I could tell she didn't exactly look happy, but she definitely looked healthier than I remembered. She had a lot of her color back.

"How long have I been asleep?" I asked, sitting up. I clutched the blanket to my chest, rather embarrassed that I had on a sheer nightgown I had purposely left behind. Natsume or one of her gym maidens must have dressed me before I was put in bed.

"For more than two days, now." She was speaking softly, but I could already feel it wasn't going to last, and I was very thankful the walls were soundproof a few seconds before she exploded. "That was really stupid of you! You could have killed yourself by not sleeping like that!"

"So Natsume told you about that, huh?"

"Yes, she did, but she didn't tell me why." I had just enough time to breathe a sigh of relief before she ruined the train of thought. "I wouldn't let her tell me that part, I wanted to hear it from you. So start explaining." Nope. Definitely not happy. And, of all things, right then it was _me_ she was unhappy with. Life is so unfair.

I tried to figure out how best to word it. Wondered if maybe I could get away with a lie. But Haruka knew me a little too well, she'd know if I was bullshitting her. She crossed her arms over her chest when I took too long, and I sighed. Yes, the truth was definitely my only course of action right then. "I was ... trying to protect you," I admitted. I didn't look at her as I said it. It was the first line of a conversation that could become very bad, very fast.

I could feel her anger melt away. Now she was just confused. "Protect me?" she echoed softly. Her arms dropped to her side. "From what?" She truly didn't understand, not that I expected her to. Few of the world's best psychiatrists understood the human mind better than a properly trained psychic.

"What happened, back in ... in his room. You felt so horrible. So angry, so afraid. You felt so helpless. I ... I couldn't stand it. I wouldn't let you feel so bad. So I was ... kind of draining away your bad feelings. Pulling them into me, so you wouldn't have to feel them." I didn't look at her, couldn't. If I did, I knew I'd cry, and I'd already cried so many times because of what had happened.

"My dreams," she said, suddenly realizing the truth of my words. "That's why I had so many good dreams when I slept. You were taking all the nightmares away. That's why you didn't sleep."

I nodded, not sure if she was angry or upset at me, mainly because of the fact she wasn't so sure herself. "It was all my fault. If I had been paying attention, I would have felt what he was doing months ago. I should have stopped it before it even started. If I had ... then you ... you wouldn't have..." I couldn't finish the sentence. I was crying. Damn it all, I was crying, no matter how hard I tried not to.

After a few moments, I felt her arms around her, hugging me, holding me. It was enough to make me start crying all over again, for an entirely different set of reasons. I was very thankful I was the gym's most powerful empath. If someone else in the building had as much empathic power as I did, the emotions of that single room would have driven them mad. But, thankfully, I was the best, even beating out Natsume. She was a much stronger telepath and telekinetic than I was, but when it came to emotions, to empathy, no one alive was better than me. It was what had allowed me to save Haruka.

"Don't cry, _please_ don't cry," she begged me, and I could tell she was crying now, too. The problem was, I couldn't tell if it was her sadness causing her to cry, or if I was projecting my emotions. "It's not your fault, it's his. It's _all_ his fault. He's the one that decided to do it, and you stopped him from doing everything he wanted."

She was desperate, wanting me to believe I had done my part, wanting me to be happier than she was able to be. And I couldn't lie to myself, try to convince myself that she didn't understand. She did understand. She knew she had been enslaved, been raped, mentally, every day for months. But right then, she had forgotten all of that. She had abandoned all of those feelings when she had seen me crying. It was the first thing I had seen since that damned Friday night that gave me any hope, and, after a few more moments, I was able to calm down. I was glad when she didn't release me from her embrace.

"Has Natsume been working with you?" I whispered. She was so close, I didn't need to speak louder, which was good, because I didn't know if I was able.

"When she's had the time, yes. Her and her ... uhm ... partner, Erika-san," she said, sounding rather embarrassed. Even through my tears, and the lack of my glasses, I could tell she was blushing. Erika? That was the name of the woman who answered the phone when I called. Come to think of it, it was also the name of the Tamamushi City gym leader, someone I knew my cousin had had her eye on. Apparently, Tamamushi had a new gym leader these days. It was almost enough to make me smile. Almost. "Natsume-san said Erika-san's the only other person that wasn't a psychic that she's taught how to shield her mind, so she'd be able to help teach me, when Natsume-san was busy with challenges and things. I ... I think it's working, but we've only had two days, and I've been so worried about you..."

I was deeply touched. But a moment later, my stomach growled so loud that I thought I was going to explode. That's when I realized I was deeply hungry.

"I need something to eat," I said, and couldn't ignore how incredibly stupid that sounded at the moment. The girl I loved was holding me in her arms, we'd been talking, getting nearer and nearer to discussing the thing I wanted and dreaded to talk about. And my stomach decided to act like Satoshi's. Admittedly, though, mine had an excuse—it hadn't gotten food in over two days.

The humor wasn't lost on her either, thankfully. She laughed. The first laugh I'd heard in over a week. As far as I was concerned, it was the most wonderful sound in the world. "I'll go down to the kitchen and have them make you something. Come along when you're ready."

I hated it when her arms weren't around me anymore, hated it even more when she had closed the door behind her. I felt, suddenly, very alone. I wondered how I was going to survive these three weeks without making a serious mess of things.

I groaned when I got out of bed, stretched muscles stiff from two days' lack of use. Then, I dressed, and went to get something to eat.

-----

Things were getting better. It was happening slowly, just a little, day by day, but it was happening. As Christmas grew closer and closer, I could tell. Every day, I was picking up fewer surface thoughts from her, though nothing could keep me from picking up her emotions. Even Natsume couldn't block those from me.

But even more important than that, to me at least, was the fact Haruka was feeling better. As her mental shielding became stronger, I could feel her returning to her normal self. She was no longer helpless, no longer vulnerable. And for her, that was enough to let her begin to be happy again. What happened wouldn't have a chance to happen again.

So it was, that Christmas morning, when she woke up, she managed the first real, full smile I had seen in months. I was up before her, happy that things were finally returning to normal. Problem was, she was sleeping about three inches away, and when I moved to get out of bed, I woke her up on accident.

"Merry Christmas," she grumbled sleepily. I turned to look at her, sliding my glasses on as I did. Her pale blue eyes were barely open, her hair was messy, and her voice sounded weird with sleep. But she was smiling. As far as I was concerned, she was beautiful.

"Merry Christmas, Haruka," I said, stretching and stifling a yawn. As she sat up, rubbed the sleep from her eyes, I went over to the bag I had brought with me, rummaged around inside it until I found what I was looking for. "There'll be a Christmas party later on, around noon, but I wanted to give you your present now," I told her as I walked back to the bed, sat on the edge, and handed out the small, simply wrapped package.

She blinked at me, suddenly wide awake. She didn't reach for the box. "You shouldn't have. You've already given me so much ... done so much for me..." She did, however, reach her hand up to her neck. My choker was still there. As far as I knew, she hadn't removed it once since I had clasped it there.

I have to admit, it felt a little weird. I'd worn that choker every day since I was ten years old. But I did have something to make up for it. The choker I had given her when we first met was around my neck, now. It didn't feel the same, but that's what made it nice in some ways. In the months she had owned it, it had picked up traces of her aura. Now, wearing it made it feel as if she were close to me, even when she wasn't. In was, in fact, the reason I had been able to rescue her from that monster—since each of us was carrying a bit of the other's aura, it connected us in a way stronger than normally possible. But that wasn't important right then. I had to talk Haruka into taking a gift she didn't feel she deserved.

"Yes, I should have. It's Christmas, after all. And I bought this months ago. Way too late to take it back, now," I said, giving her a little wink. I continued to hold the box out. "Besides, it's not much. Just a little something I thought you'd like." I was lying through my teeth, to be honest. The contents of that box cost nearly two hundred dollars. No reason _she_ had to know that, though. At least, until she opened the box. After that point, simple gift-giving protocol stated she had to keep the present.

I could feel her resolve melting quickly. And then, she was taking the box from me, and it took all my will power not to do a spin and pump my fist in the air. "You liar," she said softly, as soon as the wrapping paper was off and the lid of the box removed. Not that there was much conviction behind that accusation.

"Liar? Who? Me?" I asked, feigning innocence. I put on my most angelic face, which made her laugh. Hearing her laugh like that, such a natural sound, made me even happier than the slightly awed look on her face when she saw what was in the box.

"Don't play innocent with me! You said it was 'just a little something'! These had to cost you two hundred bucks!" She wasn't angry, not really. Just a little shell-shocked. After all, it wasn't every day someone put out that kind of money for her. She was far from broke, but two hundred dollars was still two hundred dollars.

"Who said anything about the price? They _are_ little, aren't they?" I said, smiling like I'd just won an Academy Award. For this performance, I damn well should!

"Idiot," she murmured. She was somewhere between laughing and crying, though it was the first time I'd seen tears in her eyes and been _glad_ to see them. This time, it was a happy crying. She pulled the present out, and even I had to admire them. They were black bands, which looked a lot like smaller versions of the chokers we both wore. But these were made of layers of silk, softer, more flexible, and when pooled together, stronger than the leather of the choker. They were designed as bracelets of sorts, their clasps made of real gold. Hey, there was a reason the things were so expensive. "You're such an idiot," she said again, but the fact I was an idiot didn't stop her from putting the straps around her wrists.

"Like them?" I asked.

"Of course I like them!" she responded, the thought of the possibility of not liking them seeming anathema to her.

"They look good on you," I remarked, being perfectly honest. Truthfully, I was kind of jealous. I was more than willing to shell out two bills for Haruka, but not quite so willing to spend as much on myself.

"I ... I didn't really have a chance to get you anything..." she said, looking suddenly very distraught. A wave of emotion nearly enough to make me sick to my stomach hit me. She was _very_ upset that she didn't have a present for me.

"Don't worry about it," I said, as soon as I could manage it, waving a hand limply. "It's not a big deal. And like you said, you haven't had a chance to get me anything. I'll wait." I gave her a little wink. "But only so long." I gave a little laugh, which she smiled at. "Now come on. Let's get ready and out to the party before the lackeys start thinking we're as bad as Natsume and Erika."

It was just a joke, really. But I was made seriously happy by the blush that lit her cheeks, and the rush of emotions I felt coming from her.

Christmas day passed reasonably well, better than I ever could have dared to hope two weeks earlier. Haruka was still a little uneasy about the number of psychics in the gym, which was perfectly understandable. But it didn't stop her from enjoying herself at the party, or from enjoying the gigantic Christmas dinner that was prepared.

I noticed she spent quite a bit of time with Natsume and Erika, but I figured it was because that, other than me, she didn't really know anyone else, while I was busy checking up on old friends, some of them students that used to be under my tutelage. But whenever I came back to her, I could always feel something. A kind of wistful jealousy. It wasn't until we were in bed, ready to fall asleep, that I was able to figure it out.

She was jealous of the relationship Natsume and Erika had. And I had to admit that I was, too. They were able to be so ... natural. It was impossible to look at them, standing there together, and not see how well they complimented each other. How much they simply belonged together. Part of it, I knew, was that they owned this place. The gym was their castle, and they ruled. But even outside, I knew, they would be the same.

Haruka wanted that. And so did I. And, maybe, if Jamie hadn't messed things up so terribly, we'd have that already. But what had begun had been shattered, and we were left with nothing but tiny shards of possibility to try and piece back together. My greatest fear, at that moment, and for a long time after, was that we'd never be able to fit all the pieces back together.

-----

The next few days passed in a rather predictable pattern. Every day, for hours, Natsume would work with Haruka, and when she wasn't available, Erika and I would do it, Erika teaching her how to put up the shields, and me testing their strength. She was getting better at it every day, too. Pretty soon, it was nearly impossible for me to read her thoughts.

It was lonely for me. When you're a psychic, you get kind of used to knowing what's going on in the heads of people around you. But now, I couldn't read Haruka's mind. I still felt her emotions, but I couldn't feel the thoughts that caused them, so it got harder to understand her. I missed it, but it came along with her being happy again. And I could still feel the fact she was happy. That made it all more than worth it.

New Year's Eve. I'd never really paid much attention to the day. It always just seemed like an annoying little brother than wouldn't leave Christmas alone. But this time, for some reason, when Natsume, Erika, Haruka and I were driving towards Tamamushi for the big celebration, I felt something. For the first time, New Year's was a time of renewal for me, and I was very thankful that the older girls had asked us along.

We arrived at about eleven, and had a surprisingly easy time making our way through the crowd of thousands. I had a distinct feeling Natsume was using her powers to give people the idea they should let us pass. But however it happened, we had a wonderful view of the large, flashing ball that was getting ready to make its way back to the ground.

I'd never been to one of these large New Year's celebrations. Before, if I'd bothered to celebrate at all, I'd just spend the night with friends. But it was kind of exciting. Everyone in the crowd was so ... happy. So excited to be bringing in a new year. By the time midnight was getting closer, I was almost drunk on the emotions of the crowd.

There was only a minute left. The thought was in so many minds it was impossible _not_ to pick it up. "Is it true," Haruka asked me, straining to speak loud enough over the crowd without yelling, "that you're supposed to kiss the person you love as soon as the new year begins?"

"Uhm, I've uh, heard something to that effect..." I stammered. I suddenly had an entire rain forest's worth of butterflies flittering around my stomach.

"Of course it's true." Natsume, standing just a foot or two away. Her arms were around Erika's waist, and they were both smiling. Natsume smiling was a very rare sight indeed. It didn't happen nearly often enough.

"You're not helping matters!" I hissed at her, and she just laughed, which was even rarer than her smiling.

"Yukio ... please?"

I turned back to Haruka. She had an almost pleading look. Like she needed the kiss as badly as I did. But I just couldn't ... after what she had been through, how could I even dream of trying to move things between us on so fast?

"Please?" she asked again.

"Are you sure?" I had to ask. I had to at least do that much. I'd never be able to forgive myself if I didn't.

"Look for yourself," she said, closing her eyes and leaning towards me. I started to protest, but she pressed a finger to my lips without even opening her eyes. "Just look."

I sighed, resigned. She definitely knew how to get what she wanted. I pressed my forehead to hers, closed my eyes. And, just like that, I knew. She had felt the same way I did all along. She had wanted to tell me for so long now, but had been afraid, then been unable to because of what Jamie had done to her. Plus a part of her had been afraid of what it might mean for her future career. But seeing Natsume and Erika, both easily recognizable public figures, sharing their love so openly, had made her simply not care about that anymore.

_Slowly_, I said gently to her mind.

_Slowly_, she agreed. _But I think a New Year's kiss is slow enough to start with, don't you_?

Ten. Nine. Eight.

_I love you, you know_, she said in my head, our eyes still closed, foreheads still resting against each other. _I have since we first met, but didn't know it until that first night we danced._

Seven. Six. Five.

_The same for me_, I told her. _When you walked into the room, you just felt so _right_. And when we danced ... it was magical. I knew I'd found someone special._

Four. Three. Two.

_Stay with me forever._

I'm not sure which of us said that. I'm not sure it really matters.

One.

We moved at the same instant, our foreheads parting as our lips came together. If dancing with her was magical, kissing her was, quite simply, divine. Our hands clasped not long after our lips, our fingers twining together.

I have no idea how long we kissed. The next thing I was aware of, a giggling Erika and Natsume were pulling us apart, and I managed to see that the four of us were among the last people leaving the square. Haruka and I held hands on the walk back to the car, and in the two hour drive back to Yamabuki, she fell asleep curled up against me.

I'd never been happier in my life.

----------

End Chapter IX.


	10. Chapter X

College Daze

Chapter X

By: Sara Miyamoto

A note to my readers: For those of you who skipped straight to this chapter when you saw it posted, I ask that you return to Chapter One and read, at the very least, the words I have prepared for you there. Once done with that, feel free to make your own decisions about how to proceed.

--

--Shigeru--

Remember back at the beginning, when I mentioned that if I had known what was to come, I would have welcomed staying in that clouded daze I was in? Well, now you know why.

Satoshi was pissed at me. The only time he dared to be around me was when we were training for the school's Pokémon battling team. Our coach, Yuri, after watching us battle independently, had decided our battle styles complimented each other perfectly and had paired us up to train for double battles. I think she was starting to regret that decision.

Satoshi's feelings were interfering in our teamwork. He either couldn't or wouldn't put in the effort to coordinate our tactics more closely. In the six weeks or so since we had been paired up, we had made absolutely no significant progress.

But what really bothered me was that Satoshi refused to talk to me outside of practice. The moment practice was over he would split before I could say anything to him. The few times I had tried breaching the subject while on the field he had shot me down, saying we needed to focus on our Pokémon.

And then, the day that made everything worse.

It was Friday, and the following week would mark the end of our first semester. Satoshi and I were trudging through yet another grueling, unproductive practice session. And that's when I heard it. Well, 'heard' might not be the proper word. Something ... bad has happened. Come to Satoshi's dorm room. Now. There was nothing to hear. It was a thought projected into my head by my friend Yukio. But I could 'hear' the pain in her mental voice. Something was, indeed, very wrong.

"Coach Yuri!" I called out across the field. Before she even began to turn I had already grabbed Satoshi by the arm and began to run. "We have to go! It's an emergency! I'll explain later!"

We drew curious stares as we ran. But I don't think anyone was more wide-eyed than Satoshi. "Shigeru, what's going on? What emergency?" His confusion didn't stop him from running, however. Thank goodness for small favors. He was, for the moment, too confused and alarmed to be mad at me.

"I don't know. Something happened at your room."

"What do you mean? How would you know if something had happened?" I think now would be a good time to point out that Satoshi knew nothing of Yukio's powers. I had been the only one Yukio had entrusted with that bit of information.

"Yukio told me," I said simply, leaving him to figure out things from there. It wasn't my place to tell others' secrets.

Even at a full run, it took us about five minutes to cross the entire campus and make it to the dorms. A minute later we were crowning the stairs to the third floor, and just as we did so, we saw Yukio leading Haruka out of Satoshi's room.

Satoshi slowed as we neared the girls. "Haruka?" he asked, seeing the stain of recent tears on her face, her red and puffy eyes.

I kept my hold on his arm firm and steered him away. "Later," I said softly, but he could hear in the tone the fact he should not argue. Yukio was silently informing me of what had happened. Between the description and the trace amounts of emotion that were broadcast along with her message, I was almost ready to throw up by the time they were out of sight. Once they were gone, I finally let go of Satoshi's arm, bracing myself against the wall outside his room and taking several deep breaths. I don't think any virus, any disease on the planet, could have made me feel sicker than I did at that moment.

"Oh, man..." I heard from inside the room. Apparently, while I had been trying to compose myself, Satoshi had wandered in. I walked to the door, not daring to enter myself. I should have told Satoshi that he shouldn't have gone in, but it was too late now. He was looking at his broken door, split near in half and laying on the floor. Then he moved to the shattered window and looked outside. "Oh, god!" he backed up quickly, and didn't stop until he had almost bowled me over.

He looked up at me, and I had never seen him so scared before. "Shigeru... Jamie... he..."

I shook my head softly, grabbed him gently by the shoulders. "I already know, Satoshi. I'll explain it later. But come on. The police will be here really soon. You don't want to actually be inside the room when they show up."

He was too shell shocked to offer any resistance as he led him the rest of the way out of the room, and he plopped to the ground a moment later, leaning back against the wall where I had been in a similar state just minutes before. He was still sitting there, breathing heavily and staring at nothing in particular, when a group of policemen and a plain clothed detective came rushing up the stairs. Seeing us right by the door to the scene of the crime, we seemed a perfectly logical start to their questioning. But, as the uniformed officers took up a protective stance by the door, I curtailed the detective by addressing him first.

"Sir, are you the one in charge?"

He gave me a funny look for a moment before responding. "Yeah, that I am, son."

I then leaned in close as I dared and whispered to him so no one else could hear, "Code Epsilon."

Judging by the detective's reaction, Yukio had not erred in her instructions. 'Code Epsilon' was apparently a world-recognized code used by police forces to label cases that involved psychic activity—something normal officers simply were not cut out to handle. The detective's eyes had gone wide, and he looked at me hard for several seconds. "You shittin' me, son? I haven't heard that in over a decade."

"Sir, if I was the type of person who would be bullshitting you, would I know to say that?"

He looked at me for another several seconds before his expression softened and he sighed heavily, rubbing his forehead with his hand. "I s'pose not. Is it you?"

"No, sir. A friend of mine told me to inform you. She's gone already. She had some ... very important matters to care for that couldn't wait."

The detective sighed again. "Fuck me sideways," he muttered under his breath as he tried to gather his thoughts. "Alright, I understand. You and your friend get lost. The special-cases squad will find you if you're important to the case. The psychic bastards always seem to know."

I sighed in relief. I don't think I had ever felt such tension before. But thank The Creator that I had ended up with a detective who knew what he was doing and was able to think on the fly. I walked back to Satoshi, who hadn't moved at all, and gently lifted him to his feet. What he had seen had apparently affected him deeper than I would have thought possible, because he offered no resistance, raised no objections, as I began to lead him away. I took one look back at the detective as I led Satoshi to the stairs. The detective had pulled out a cell phone and was having a rather animated discussion with whoever was on the other end, having forgotten all about us already.

The time it took to leave the building was one of the most surreal experiences of my life. Around practically every corner was a police officer, stopping students from moving up to the third floor and questioning people. Once outside, I could see several patrol cars, and knew there were more around the corner near to where Jamie had fallen. Thankfully, my car was in the other direction, so Satoshi wouldn't have to be subject to that sight again.

A few minutes later, I had settled him into the passenger seat of my car and was headed for home.

--

I was really worried by the time I pulled into the parking garage of my apartment complex. Satoshi hadn't done anything except stare out the windshield as we drove. The times I had tried to talk to him, he hadn't responded. I might have feared he had gone into some kind of coma if not for the fact that he responded to my guiding touch as I extracted him from the car and led him up to my apartment on the top floor.

Once inside, I settled him on the couch and took a seat next to him, burying my face in my hands as I tried to collect my thoughts. I thought by this point, my mind would be racing a million miles a minute, but I actually found myself unable to really think on things at all. It took near superhuman amounts of concentration to bring the thoughts I needed to focus on up out of the murky depths that had become the landscape of my thoughts.

Once I had finally gotten enough control over my brain to feel I was ready, I turned to Satoshi. "Satoshi, listen to me. I know what you saw wasn't pleasant, but I need to tell you what happened, and I need you here with me to do it." He didn't respond at all to my words, merely continued to stare out into space. I let out a deep sigh, resigning myself to the only thing I could think of to snap him out of it. "Sorry, Sato-kun..."

I pulled my right arm back, and with as much force as I dared, I slapped him full on the cheek. The crack of skin on skin was loud enough to make me cringe, never mind the stinging of my palm. But, it at least had the desired results: Satoshi yelped in pain, bringing his hands up to cover the left side of his face as he uttered a nigh incomprehensible stream of obscenities. Within seconds, I could already see an angry red welt forming in the shape of my hand.

"God dammit! Son of a bitch! That hurt!" He had partially curled up on himself, and I wondered if perhaps I had gone too far and really caused damage to him. But after a few more moments of ranting, he finally took the time to look around (presumably to find the person who had hit him) and noticed where he was, which immediately put an end to his triad as he dropped his hands and looked at me. "What the..? When did I... How did I get here..?"

I released a sigh of relief. I had finally managed to bring him around. Now, to answer his questions. "You uh ... kind of went catatonic after looking out the window back in your room. I brought you here, since you won't be able to use your room for a while. And uh, sorry for the slap. Nothing else was getting through to you."

"Oh," he said simply, looking at me with a dumbfounded expression. "What ... what happened back there..?"

I let out another sigh as I tried to organize things in my head, resting my head in my open palms. I had to tell him, I just wasn't sure exactly how to go about it. In the end, the blunt approach was all I could think of. I didn't have it in me to sugarcoat the things Jamie had done.

"Okay. Okay. This probably gonna be confusing for you, 'cause it sure as hell is for me, but this is what I know. Jamie had been ... controlling Haruka. He's a psychic." Satoshi gasped at the revelation, but I didn't look up. I wasn't sure I'd be able to finish the story if I looked directly at him. I was already starting to feel sick again. "Tonight he tried to do something bad. Something really bad. I ... I can't bring myself to say it. I think after seeing the state Haruka was in, you can guess. Yukio found out what was going on, and she's who broke in and stopped him. Shoved him out the window to get him away from Haruka. He's alive ... but I don't think he'll be a danger to anyone any time soon."

There was silence between us for several seconds as Satoshi apparently tried to process what I had told him. I kept my face in my hands, taking deep breaths, worried I'd get sick if I tried to look at him right then. Satoshi beat me to it, though. I felt him get up off the couch, heard the sound of footsteps racing away from me, to then be replaced with the sound of retching from the direction of the bathroom.

As the minutes passed, the sounds from the bathroom slowly came to an end, and I eventually felt it as Satoshi plopped himself down on the couch next to me. I finally dared look at him. He was pale, and shaking, and tears streamed down his face. I had to fight the urge to hold him to me.

"How ... how do you know what happened...?" I had to give the boy credit. Despite the state he was in, his voice was rather steady.

Of course, he had asked the one question I didn't feel I was at liberty to answer fully. "Yukio told me. And before you ask when or how ... you'll have to talk to her about that. It's not really my place to say."

Several minutes passed before either of us spoke again. "Shigeru, can I stay here..? I don't really have anywhere else to go..."

I can't believe I had it in my to smile right then. But somehow, his words had drawn one out, however small it may have been. "Of course, Satoshi. I wouldn't have brought you here if you weren't welcome. I know we're having ... problems right now. But I could never turn you away."

"Thanks, Shigeru. That means ... more than I can say right now."

--

The following week might have been tense if we weren't both so depressed. As it was, we could barely function as human beings, let alone come up with any excuse to be cross with each other. Our spat with each other just didn't seem to matter when weighed against what had happened.

Saturday morning, after a fitful night where I didn't get anything close to something that resembled sleep, I took it upon myself to check on the girls. I would have taken Satoshi with me, but he had passed out on the couch, and I didn't dare wake him. I came to be glad of that after I reached Yukio and Haruka's dorm.

Haruka was, somehow, asleep. Surprisingly, she looked almost peaceful. If nothing else, her face didn't show the pain that Satoshi's did as he slept. Yukio, who had rested even less than I had, explained to me what she was doing. I was scared for her. From the way she described it, it was incredibly risky. But she felt she had no choice. She absolutely refused to let Haruka endure one once of pain more than she could help.

And so it was, twice a day for the next week, that I visited. Each time, I brought Yukio a drink with enough caffeine to keep a drowsy elephant awake for days. Each time, my heart sank a little more. Every time I saw her, Yukio looked worse. As the days wore on, she grew paler (something I thought impossible), her eyes became more heavily ringed by dark circles, and she grew more jittery as the lack of sleep took its toll. Haruka, on the other hand, spent almost all of her time asleep. The few times I came by when she was awake, she stayed in bed, curled up on herself, crying silently.

I was glad our finals for the semester had been taken the previous Friday. I don't think I could have focused in class no matter how hard I tried, but the teachers were basically just reviewing the material we had gone over in the previous months. Satoshi was no better off. We both sat through our classes like little more than breathing corpses. The teachers, knowing at least the gist of what had happened, were sympathetic, and never called us out on our behavior.

In that week, Satoshi and I spent pretty much all of our free time at my apartment. We would talk sometimes, but neither of us seemed able to bring up a topic of any importance, such as the situation at the Halloween party six weeks earlier. Often, one of us would go to say something, but be unable to follow up.

--

I'm ashamed to admit it. But when Friday, the final day of the semester rolled around, I felt relieved. I was going home and would be away from my problems for a while.

I was concerned for Yukio and Haruka. But I knew after talking to Yukio that morning that they would, eventually, be alright. I was concerned about my relationship with Satoshi. But right then, I just felt like I needed to be away from him.

I knew we were both going back to Masara, but there seemed to be a silent understanding that we would stay as far away as possible from each other during that time. We had talked a little about our plans for the holidays, but we had never once made mention of spending any of the time together. I think Satoshi was as desperate for the time alone as I was. We both had healing to do.

I had purposefully booked a flight later in the day than Satoshi had. When it was time for him to leave, he surprised me by giving me a hug, and then he headed out for the taxi that was waiting in front of the building for him. I was sure by that point that Yukio and Haruka were already in Yamabuki City. I was alone, and my flight wasn't scheduled to leave until much later that evening.

I waited half an hour, just to make sure there was absolutely no chance of Satoshi coming back for some reason. I knew the risk was all but non-existent, as he had very few of his things at my place, but I didn't dare take even that small of a risk being caught doing what I knew I had to do. When I was sure I was safely alone, I laid face-down on the couch, resting my forehead on my folded arms.

And I began to cry.

Satoshi had shed his tears. Haruka and Yukio would likely continue to shed theirs for a long time to come. But foolish, arrogant me had refused to let the tears come, refused to allow myself to express the sorrow I fought tooth and nail to keep inside. I was the strong one. I had to be able to function, to support my friends when they needed me. I couldn't let myself break down and become useless to them.

I was an idiot.

I realized it almost the moment I let the flood gates open. I was jealous of Satoshi, of his ability to take what had happened, grieve, and begin the recovering process like a normal person. How much more useful could I have been, I wondered, if I had let this out at the beginning? How much more help could I have provided Haruka, Yukio, or even Satoshi, had I not been so weak as to feel the need to keep it inside, to not let it affect me?

I cried all the harder at the realization that I may have been able to do more for my friends, if not for the ego I thought I had left behind years ago.

I was a Creator-damned idiot.

--

Several hours of crying, a short drive, and roughly two hours of security red-tape later, I found myself on a plane headed for Tokiwa City, which contained the closest airport to Masara. I have no clue if the flight was enjoyable or not—the moment the Fasten Seatbelts sign was turned off, I asked the flight attendant for a pillow and blanket and slept like the dead for the entire 14-hour flight. I didn't wake, in fact, until the flight attendant shook me awake to inform me we were about to land and I needed to be awake and buckled in.

I didn't feel at all rested from my sleep, but I refused to let that fact slow me down. I made my way as quickly through baggage claim and customs as was possible, headed across the highway from the airport, and rented a car.

An hour later, I was was pulling into the driveway of my grandfather's estate. I'm not sure I had ever been so happy to see the place. It represented something I was in desperate need of: comfort and security. Once inside, I quickly found my grandfather in his lab and greeted him with a hug that I think I needed far more than he did. He wanted to talk. If I had given him half a chance, we'd have been at it for hours, and normally I would have been all for it. But I excused myself quickly, told him I needed some rest that he attributed to jet lag, and went to my room.

I collapsed into a bed I had all but outgrown and fell asleep.

--

The next three weeks passed entirely too quickly. Two days after I arrived, Nanami and her husband Saigo arrived to spend the Christmas holiday with Ojiisan. I spent much of the time catching up with Nanami, discussing Pokémon with with Ojiisan, and spending time with my hundreds of monsters in the open fields of the ranch.

I hadn't felt so relaxed since long before school started. For those three weeks, I had no responsibilities, no problems to deal with. I could literally feel my heart mending a little more each day. It was a wonderful feeling to have no worries, and even the daunting thought that my problems were still waiting for me when I returned could not curb my good mood as my vacation continued.

Christmas came and went, an uneventful though immeasurably pleasant experience. For New Year's, Ojiisan and I stayed home and watched the ball drop in Tamamushi Square, toasting in the new year with a bottle of chilled sake.

A few days later, it was time for me to head back. I promised Ojiisan I would do a better job of keeping in touch, and with one final hug I was off. A few hours later I was on a plane headed back for Minamo, and I felt confident that when I got there, I would be able to handle whatever life threw my way.

Like I said before, I'm a Creator-damned idiot.

--

End Chapter X.


End file.
